Overview

Moral responsibility refers to the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission performed in accordance with one’s moral obligations.

Core Idea

The core idea is accountability. You are the author of your actions, and you must answer for them.

Formal Definition

To be morally responsible, an agent usually needs:

  1. Control Condition: The action was up to them (Free Will).
  2. Epistemic Condition: They knew (or should have known) what they were doing.

Intuition

  • The Sleepwalker: If you kill someone while sleepwalking, you are not morally responsible because you weren’t in control.
  • The Child: A toddler who breaks a vase isn’t “blamed” like an adult would be, because they don’t understand.

Examples

  • Determinism: If the universe is fully determined by physics, and my brain is just atoms obeying physics, do I have free will? If not, can I be responsible? (The Hard Determinist says no).
  • Compatibilism: The view that free will and determinism are compatible. As long as I act according to my desires (even if determined), I am responsible.

Common Misconceptions

  • Misconception: Responsibility = Causality.
    • Correction: A storm causes damage, but isn’t responsible. Responsibility requires agency.
  • Misconception: You are only responsible for what you intend.
    • Correction: You can be responsible for negligence (what you failed to do or notice).
  • Free Will: The ability to choose between different possible courses of action.
  • Excusing Conditions: Ignorance, coercion, insanity.
  • Collective Responsibility: Can a whole nation be responsible for a war?

Applications

  • Criminal Law: The insanity defense relies on the lack of moral responsibility (mens rea).
  • AI: Who is responsible when a self-driving car crashes? The coder? The owner? The car?

Criticism and Limitations

  • The Luck Objection: (See Moral Luck). If so much is luck, responsibility seems to shrink.
  • Neuroscience: Experiments (Libet) suggesting our brains decide before we are conscious of the choice challenge the basis of responsibility.

Further Reading

  • Freedom and Resentment by P.F. Strawson
  • Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments by R. Jay Wallace