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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
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    The story of responsibility based solely on attributing a... — Carmelics
    Home/Moral Responsibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The story of responsibility based solely on attributing actions to agents is incomplete.

    Moral Responsibility
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.We hold agents responsible for their behavior, which is not just a matter of the relation of an individual to her behavior.
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    • 2.When we hold responsible, we also demand certain conduct from one another and respond adversely to one another's failures to comply with these demands.
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    • 3.The moral demands and potential for adverse treatment associated with holding others responsible are part of our accountability practices, and these features raise issues of fairness that do not arise in the context of determining whether behavior is attributable to an agent.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.P.F. Strawson's reactive attitudes account grounds responsibility fully in the quality of will expressed in actions, without requiring separate accountability norms.
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    • 2.The adversarial responses Watson identifies as accountability practices (indignation, resentment) are themselves explained by attributability: we react because the action reflects the agent's will.
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    • 3.Therefore, accountability practices are derivable from attributability rather than constituting an independent, irreducible layer of responsibility.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Angela Smith's reasons-responsiveness model demonstrates that moral responsibility is exhausted by whether an action reflects an agent's rational agency and reasons-sensitivity.
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    • 2.If responsibility is fully captured by the agent's rational control over action, then fairness constraints Watson cites as beyond attributability are internal to, not external supplements of, the attributability relation.
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    Topics

    Moral Responsibility

    Related

    Angela Smith's reasons-responsiveness model demonstrates that moral responsibili...If responsibility is fully captured by the agent's rational control over action,...P.F. Strawson's reactive attitudes account grounds responsibility fully in the q...The adversarial responses Watson identifies as accountability practices (indigna...
    +4 moreShow less
    The moral demands and potential for adverse treatment associated with holding ot...Therefore, accountability practices are derivable from attributability rather th...We hold agents responsible for their behavior, which is not just a matter of the...When we hold responsible, we also demand certain conduct from one another and re...

    Similar

    Moral responsibility requires that agents have control over the action...82%Ultimate responsibility for an action requires either that the action ...82%These revised stories show agents can be morally responsible without a...80%An account of responsibility that focuses on how agents would be willi...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted3/3 agreementValid
    SEP: moral-responsibility
    Watson 1996 [2004]
    View source passageHide passage
    However, Watson agrees with Wolf that the above story of responsibility is incomplete: there is more to responsibility than attributing actions to agents. In addition, we hold agents responsible for their behavior, which “is not just a matter of the relation of an individual to her behavior” (Watson 1996 [2004: 262]). When we hold responsible, we also “demand (require) certain conduct from one another and respond adversely to one another’s failures to comply with these demands” (Watson 1996 [2004: 262]). The moral demands, and potential for adverse treatment, associated with holding others res...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The premises faithfully capture Watson's reasoning from the passage that responsibility involves more than attributability—it includes accountability practices with moral demands and fairness considerations—thereby supporting the conclusion that a purely attributability-based account of responsibility is incomplete.

    Confidence: Clear argument explicitly laid out in the text.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit