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    Excluding agents from moral freedom entirely based on dim... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Lower animals, small children, the severely brain damaged, and perhaps even paranoid schizophrenics are rightly excluded from the class of free moral agents.

    Excluding agents from moral freedom entirely based on diminished rationality conflates impaired agency with the complete absence of agency.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Agency exists on a spectrum; diminished rationality reduces but doesn't eliminate an agent's capacity for intentional action and preference expression.
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    • 2.Moral responsibility requires some threshold of agency, not perfect rationality; many morally responsible adults have significant cognitive limitations.
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    • 3.Excluding agents entirely from moral freedom based on one cognitive deficit ignores their abilities in other domains and denies their autonomy unnecessarily.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.The claim equivocates 'moral freedom' with 'some moral agency'; these are distinct—agents might retain limited agency while lacking full moral freedom.
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    • 2.Rationality is not merely one factor among many; it's constitutive of the kind of deliberative agency required for genuine moral freedom and accountability.
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    • 3.Protecting vulnerable agents by limiting their moral freedom in certain contexts doesn't conflate impairment with absence—it reflects graduated responsibility.
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    Connections

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    Eternal Conscious Torment1 linkedAfterlife & Death1 linked

    Related

    Agency exists on a spectrum; diminished rationality reduces but doesn't eliminat...Excluding agents entirely from moral freedom based on one cognitive deficit igno...Lower animals, small children, the severely brain damaged, and perhaps even para...Moral responsibility requires some threshold of agency, not perfect rationality;...
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    Protecting vulnerable agents by limiting their moral freedom in certain contexts...Rationality is not merely one factor among many; it's constitutive of the kind o...The claim equivocates 'moral freedom' with 'some moral agency'; these are distin...

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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    1 edit