Blame and responsibility

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4):427-445 (2003)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper looks at judgments of guilt in the face of alleged wrong-doing, be it in public or in private discourse. Its concern is not the truth of such judgments, although the complexity and contestability of such claims will be stressed. The topic, instead, is what sort of activities we are engaged in, when we make our judgments on others' conduct. To examine judging as an activity it focuses on a series of problems that can occur when we blame others. On analysis, we see that these problems take the form of performative contradictions, so that the ostensible purposes of assigning guilt to others are undermined.There is clear evidence from social psychology that blame is especially frequently and inappropriately attributed to individuals in modern Western societies. On the other hand, it has often been observed how suspicious we are about the activity of judging – thus a widespread perception that a refusal to judge is somehow virtuous. My suggestion is that the sheer difficulty of attributions of responsibility, in the face of a complex and often arbitrary moral reality, frequently defeats us. This leads to a characteristic set of distortions when we blame, so that it is no surprise that we have become suspicious of all blaming activities.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

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

Blaming Badly.Mark Alicke - 2008 - Journal of Cognition and Culture 8 (1-2):179-186.
Responsibility for Health and Blaming Victims.Mike W. Martin - 2001 - Journal of Medical Humanities 22 (2):95-114.
Praise and blame.Garrath Williams - 2004 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Polishing Up the Pinto.John R. Danley - 2005 - Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (2):205-236.
The force and fairness of blame.Pamela Hieronymi - 2004 - Philosophical Perspectives 18 (1):115–148.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
87 (#178,878)

6 months
8 (#158,054)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Garrath Williams
Lancaster University

Citations of this work

An Ethical Framework for Hacking Operations.Ross W. Bellaby - 2021 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 24 (1):231-255.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments.R. Jay Wallace - 1994 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Creating the Kingdom of Ends.Christine M. Korsgaard - 1996 - New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
Freedom and Resentment.Peter Strawson - 2003 - In Gary Watson (ed.), Free Will. Oxford University Press.

View all 16 references / Add more references