Responsibility, Reactive Attitudes, and “The Morality System”

AbstractThis paper explores one facet of Paul Russell ’s unique “critical compatibilist” position on moral responsibility, which concerns his rejection of R. Jay Wallace’s “narrow construal” of moral responsibility as a concept tied exclusively to the Strawsonian reactive attitudes of resentment, indignation, and guilt. After explaining Rus sell’s critique of Wallace’s view, the paper considers a Wallace-inspired challenge based on the idea that questions of moral responsibility raise distinct issues of “fairness” that apply only to a narrow subset of the Strawsonian reactive attitudes. The paper offers a defense of Russell’s view against this challenge.

Source: Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - March 2, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research