Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology

Ferdinand David Schoeman

Cambridge University Press, 1987 - Philosophy - 358 pages

This volume of original essays addresses a range of issues concerning the responsibility individuals have for their actions and for their characters. Among the central questions considered are: what scope is there for regarding a person as responsible for his character given genetic and environmental factors; does an account of responsiblity provide a legitimate basis for the retributive emotions; are we ever justified in feeling guilty for occurrences over which we have no control; does responsibility for the consequences of our acts require that they were intended or simply expected; and how have a number of influential previous philosophers, including Aristotle, Maimonides, and Spinoza, approached these questions?

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Responsibility and character: 25
• Identification and wholeheartedness: 27
• Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility: 46
• Unfreedom and Responsibility: 63
• Responsiveness and Moral Responsibility: 81
• Determinism and Freedom in Spinoza Maimonides and Aristotle A Retrospective Study: 107
• Emotions Responsibility and Character: 165
• Responsibility and Culpability: 177
• The Moral Worth of Retribution: 179
• Nonmoral Guilt: 220
• Provocation and Culpability: 241
• Responsibility and the Limits of Evil Variations on a Strawsonian Theme: 256
• Statistical Norms and Moral Attributions: 287
• Guilt Punishment and Desert: 316
• Intention Foreseeability and Responsibility: 338
• Index of Names: 355

Bibliographic information

• Title: Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions: New Essays in Moral Psychology
• Editor: Ferdinand David Schoeman
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1987
• ISBN: 0521339510, 9780521339513
• Length: 358 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy / General