Concept
Moral responsibility
Overview
In philosophy, moral responsibility is the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission in accordance with one's moral obligations. Deciding what (if anything) counts as "morally obligatory" is a principal concern of ethics.
Philosophers refer to people who have moral responsibility for an action as "moral agents". Agents have the capability to reflect upon their situation, to form intentions about how they will act, and then to carry out that action. The notion of free will has become an important issue in the debate on whether individuals are ever morally responsible for their actions and, if so, in what sense. Incompatibilists regard determinism as being at odds with free will, whereas compatibilists think the two can coexist.
Moral responsibility does not necessarily equate to legal responsibility. A person is legally responsible for an event when a legal system is liable to penalise that person for that event. Although it may often be the case that when a person is morally responsible for an act, they are also legally responsible for it, the two states do not always coincide.
Prominent promoters of the concept of personal responsibility (or some popularization thereof) may include (for example) parents, managers, politicians, technocrats, large-group awareness trainings (LGATs), and religious groups.
Some see individual responsibility as an important component of neoliberalism.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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THE GUIDANCE OF THE GUARDIAN DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 5. But if (before coming on to the earth) the soul chooses her life and her guardian, how do we still preserve our liberty? Because what is called "choice" designates in an allegorical manner the character of the soul, and her general disposition everywhere. Again, it is objected that if the character of the soul preponderate, if the soul be…
Plotinus, Plotinos
States what Moral responsibility is; opens on Moral responsibility.
The responsibility of the British rulers of India to the British nation is chiefly useful because, when any acts of the government are called in question, it insures publicity and discussion; the utility of which does not require that the public at large should comprehend the point at issue, provided there are any individuals among them who do; for a merely moral responsibility not being responsibility to the…
John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government
States what Moral responsibility is; names Moral responsibility.
But mental experiences are derivative from the actions of the body, including of course its internal behaviour. Accordingly, the sole function of the mind is to have at least some of its experiences settled for it, and to add such others as may be open to it independently of the body’s motions, internal and external. There are then two possible theories as to the mind. You can either deny that it can supply for…
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the modern world
States what Moral responsibility is; names Moral responsibility.
Philosophers who discussed Moral responsibility
- Epicurus
- Epictetus
- Harry Frankfurt
- Peter van Inwagen
- P. F. Strawson
- Ronald Dworkin
- Peter Hacker
- Peter Vallentyne
- Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
- Gideon Rosen
- Derk Pereboom
- Paul Russell (philosopher)
Related ideas
- Arjuna
- Technocracy
- Philosophy
- Punishment
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Justice
- South Africa
- Mind–body dualism
- Experimental philosophy
- Intentionality
- Thomas Nagel
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Obligation
- Bhagavad Gita
- Paul the Apostle
- Psychosis
- Incompatibilism
- Baruch Spinoza
- Krishna
- Morality
- Nomology
- Intention
- Free will
- Determinism
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Absurdism.