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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
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    Susan Wolf's 'Reason View' establishes that moral respons... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The knowledge involved in wisdom is within the scope of the will and can fairly be the basis of moral evaluation.

    Susan Wolf's 'Reason View' establishes that moral responsibility requires the ability to act in accordance with reason, but reason itself can be systematically distorted by unchosen psychological or social conditions.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Victims of severe childhood trauma often develop distorted reasoning patterns that persist despite rational effort, limiting their genuine moral agency.
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    • 2.Social indoctrination can systematically warp how individuals process moral facts, making their 'reasoned' conclusions unreliable reflections of truth.
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    • 3.If responsibility requires reason-responsiveness, and reason is corrupted by unchosen conditions, then holding such persons fully responsible seems unjust.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Wolf's view risks making moral responsibility impossible: any reasoning could be traced to prior unchosen causes, eliminating responsibility entirely.
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    • 2.Distinguishing 'distorted' from 'functioning' reason requires independent standards—but those standards themselves could be questioned as unchosen.
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    • 3.People often overcome deeply ingrained psychological biases through effort, suggesting reason retains corrective power despite distorting influences.
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    Key Terms

    Reason View(as Wolf's main philosophical position)
    A theory arguing that someone is morally responsible (deserves blame or praise) only if they can act based on rational thinking and understanding.
    Susan Wolf(as the originator of the Reason View)
    A contemporary American philosopher who studies ethics and what makes people responsible for their actions; she's known for developing theories about when we can fairly blame or praise someone.
    Unchosen psychological or social conditions(as factors that can distort reason according to Wolf)
    Things about your mind or your social situation that you didn't pick—like your upbringing, natural personality traits, or cultural background—that weren't your choice but affect how you think and act.
    moral responsibility(The author argues for a pluralistic understanding rather than a Kantian-exclusive one)
    A normative concept whose scope is contested; the passage implies it encompasses at least Kantian notions (centered on individual rational agency) and other notions (potentially sociological, collective, or non-individualist in character)
    systematically distorted(as used in philosophy of mind)
    Warped or twisted in a consistent, recurring way by outside forces, rather than just occasionally or by accident.

    Connections

    2 topics

    Virtue Ethics1 linkedMoral Responsibility1 linked

    Related

    Distinguishing 'distorted' from 'functioning' reason requires independent standa...If responsibility requires reason-responsiveness, and reason is corrupted by unc...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    People often overcome deeply ingrained psychological biases through effort, sugg...
    Social indoctrination can systematically warp how individuals process moral fact...
    +3 moreShow less
    The knowledge involved in wisdom is within the scope of the will and can fairly ...Victims of severe childhood trauma often develop distorted reasoning patterns th...Wolf's view risks making moral responsibility impossible: any reasoning could be...