MORAL RESPONSIBILITY QUESTIONS How do we determine whether

MORAL RESPONSIBILITY

QUESTIONS • How do we determine whether a person is responsible for her or his immoral actions? • Are there degrees of responsibility? "

How Free Are Our Choices? • Moral situations involve choice, but we must be free to act – Some philosophers (determinists) say we are not free to act, that forces outside our control determine what we think, say, and do – If this is the case, the study of ethics would be pointless – Most philosophers reject the notion of determinism and believe that a wide variety of factors influence our free will and may on occasion diminish it, but rarely remove it altogether

When Culpability is Diminished • Culpability refers to the degree of a person's moral responsibility for his/her actions – If we are aware an action is wrong, then we are culpable – If we are unaware, for any reason, that an action is wrong, we are not culpable – If we lack the mental capacity to determine if an action is wrong when we preform it, we are not culpable – If we are forced to do something wrong against our will, we are not culpable

To Be Responsible Criteria needed to be held morally responsible for an action 1. Knowledge 2. Freedom Arguments to reduce responsibility 1. Ignorance 2. Coercion

Cooperation • Your actions allowed an immoral action to take place – Formal • You willingly participated in the immoral action – Informal • You had no knowledge, but because of your actions the immoral action occurred

Ethics and Law • Conflicting evidence regarding the psychopath's freedom of choice has complicated the legal approach to insanity cases – Cries for legal reform may result in changes – Perhaps the plea "not guilty by reason of insanity" could be replaced by "guilty, but insane”