Skip to main content
Log in

Is Fair Opportunity a Comprehensive Theory of Responsibility?

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Criminal Law and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

I challenge the adequacy of David Brink’s “master principle” of culpability. I allege that it fails to account for the moral relevance of ignorance of wrongdoing. I describe three cases in which I believe that Brink’s theory of normative competence cannot account for the significance of a variable that bears on culpability. In most of this paper I attempt to anticipate and reply to the various responses Brink might offer to my challenge.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Kim Ferzan for helping me to avoid errors in a previous draft of this essay.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas Husak.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Husak, D. Is Fair Opportunity a Comprehensive Theory of Responsibility?. Criminal Law, Philosophy (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-023-09676-6

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-023-09676-6

Keywords

Navigation