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Chapter 7 - Facing the Dark Side

from Part II - Prescriptive Preservationism and Eliminativism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2022

Kelly McCormick
Affiliation:
Texas Christian University
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Summary

While I take my arguments in earlier chapters to have diffused the force of worries about the harms of reactive blame, I anticipate that concerns about “the dark side” of free will, moral responsibility, and reactive blame will continue to linger. In this final chapter, I address them head-on. I examine two of the worst potential costs of free will, responsibility, and blame – their apparent connection with a constellation of deeply troubling political beliefs, and concerns about harming the innocent undeservedly. I argue that neither of these concerns can successfully motivate a brute pragmatic argument for eliminativism over preservationism. However, in the final section I sketch just this kind of argument in favor of preservationism. Here I conclude on a more personal note, by emphasizing my own victim-centered interests in theorizing about free will, responsibility, and blame, and suggest that when we adopt a perspective that places the testimony of actual victims at the forefront, eliminativism appears to have a dark side of its own. There is in fact an argument from empathy that ought to be considered more explicitly in our attempts to adjudicate between eliminativists and preservationists, and it counts heavily in favor of preservation.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Problem of Blame
Making Sense of Moral Anger
, pp. 192 - 210
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Facing the Dark Side
  • Kelly McCormick, Texas Christian University
  • Book: The Problem of Blame
  • Online publication: 21 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108907071.010
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  • Facing the Dark Side
  • Kelly McCormick, Texas Christian University
  • Book: The Problem of Blame
  • Online publication: 21 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108907071.010
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Facing the Dark Side
  • Kelly McCormick, Texas Christian University
  • Book: The Problem of Blame
  • Online publication: 21 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108907071.010
Available formats
×