Blameless wrongdoing
Article Abstract:
Consequentialism is able to accommodate agent-relativity, as Derek Parfit, has suggested. The objections offered by Jonathan Dancy against this thesis are unsuccessful. The concept of blameless wrongdoing is used to show that a non-maximizing agent-relative action such as favoring one's own child over a stranger is wrong according to consequentialism, although such an action is blameless. Dancy suggests that the consequentialist must deem the action morally permissible, but this is incorrect. Dancy also suggests that acceptance of agent-relative values makes consequentialism self-effacing, but this result would not harm consequentialism's plausibility.
Publication Name: Ethics
Subject: Philosophy and religion
ISSN: 0014-1704
Year: 1995
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Incompatibilism and the avoidability of blame
Article Abstract:
The Principle of Avoidable Blame supports the position that blameworthiness is incompatible with determinism. The Principle of Avoidable Blame avoids the shortcomings of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities proposed by Harry Frankfurt, which is vulnerable to a counterexample. Acceptance of the Principle of Avoidable Blame does not lead to complete rejection of the concept of moral luck.
Publication Name: Ethics
Subject: Philosophy and religion
ISSN: 0014-1704
Year: 1998
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Constraining condemning
Article Abstract:
Judgment is essential to most cognitive activity, but condemning takes away one person's right to disagree with another. Condemnation can be directive, involving direct punishment; attitudinal, which accepts the punishment as merited; or expressive, an expression of support for punishment. Condemnation is only appropriate when those who condemn are suitably positioned to judge.
Publication Name: Ethics
Subject: Philosophy and religion
ISSN: 0014-1704
Year: 1998
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