Justifying Blame: Why Free Will Matters and why it Does Not

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Rodopi, 2005 - Philosophy - 132 pages
This book shows why we can justify blaming people for their wrong actions even if free will turns out not to exist. Contrary to most contemporary thinking, we do this by focusing on the ordinary, everyday wrongs each of us commits, not on the extra-ordinary, "morally monstrous-like" crimes and weak-willed actions of some.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
FOUR
22
Practical Compatibilism and Ultimacy Pessimism
29
2
42
Freedom and Blameworthy Actions
57
6
63
A Describing versus Prescribing
72
Conclusion
80
Taking Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments
101
FIVE Ultimacy Pessimism and the Question of Authority
109
Works Cited
115
Glossary
121
About the Author
127
7
129
94
131
Copyright

Modesty and the Production of EBAS
90

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About the author (2005)

Maureen Sie was born in 1966, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She is employed as Assistant Professor of Meta-ethics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her research concerns questions of Meta-ethics and theories of moral responsibility. Her most recent publication is the co-edited volume Reasons of One's Own (Ashgate, 2004). Her previous publications on the subject of responsibility are: "Responsibility in Autonomy Undermining Circumstances," Ethical Perspectives, 5, (1998), pp. 30-35; "Goodwill, Determinism and Justification," Human Action, Deliberation and Causation, Jan Bransen and Stefaan E. Cuypers (eds.). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, (1998), pp. 113-129; "Freedom and Blameworthiness," Moral Responsibility and Ontology, Ton van den Beld (ed.). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (2000), pp. 113-128; "Mad, Bad, or Disagreeing? On Moral Competence and Responsibility," Philosophical Explorations, 3 (September). Assen: Van Gorcum, (2001), pp. 262-281.

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