A Puzzle About Responsibility: A Problem and its Contextualist Solution

Erkenntnis 74 (2):207-224 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper presents a puzzle about moral responsibility. The problem is based upon the indeterminacy of relevant reference classes as applied to action. After discussing and rejecting a very tempting response I propose moral contextualism instead, that is, the idea that the truth value of judgments of the form S is morally responsible for x depends on and varies with the context of the attributor who makes that judgment. Even if this reply should not do all the expected work it is a first step.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,270

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

A puzzle about moral responsibility.Fabio Lampert & John William Waldrop - 2023 - Philosophical Studies 180 (8):2291-2307.
Free Will and Contextualism.Steven Rieber - 2006 - Philosophical Studies 129 (2):223-252.
Moral responsibility and unavoidable action.David P. Hunt - 2000 - Philosophical Studies 97 (2):195-227.
A new solution to the problem of luck.Ann Whittle - 2023 - Philosophical Issues 33 (1):314-327.
Conditionals, indeterminacy, and triviality.Justin Khoo - 2013 - Philosophical Perspectives 27 (1):260-287.
On the Distinction between Moral Responsibility and Moral Appraisability.Shathy Akter - 2022 - Anwesan (a Research Journal of Philosophy (XXI).
Scrupulous agents.Jesse S. Summers & Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2015 - Philosophical Psychology 28 (7):947-966.
Moral Responsibility as Guiltworthiness.A. P. Duggan - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (2):291-309.
A Different Sort of Contextualism.John Greco - 2004 - Erkenntnis 61 (2-3):383-400.
Moral responsibility and the continuation problem.Alfred R. Mele - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 162 (2):237-255.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-11-21

Downloads
90 (#234,340)

6 months
7 (#724,946)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Peter Baumann
Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München

References found in this work

Knowledge and lotteries.John Hawthorne - 2004 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Knowledge and practical interests.Jason Stanley - 2005 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Mortal questions.Thomas Nagel - 1979 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 59 references / Add more references