this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: On the Relative Unimportance of Moral Responsibility
Author(s): HAJI, Ishtiyaque
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 5    Issue: 3   Date: October 1998   
Pages: 188-199
DOI: 10.2143/EP.5.3.563082

Abstract :
In this paper, I shall confine attention to a core element of the epistemic condition. After clarifying this element, I’ll motivate the suggestion that specifically moral goals, concerns, or ideals in the everyday lives of very many of us do not take pride of place. This simple fact, in association with the core epistemic element of responsibility, I believe, reveals that the ‘scope’ of moral responsibility is restricted. Next, I propose and attempt to defend the view that though people are not morally responsible for much of their behaviour in the day-to-day business of living, they are responsible — not just causally — but ‘normatively’ as I shall say, for a good deal of what they do. I shall end by producing a sketch of the concept of ‘normative responsibility’.

Download article