Book contents
- The Problem of Blame
- The Problem of Blame
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Permissibility of Blame
- Chapter 1 The Problem of Blame
- Chapter 2 The Structure of Basic Desert
- Chapter 3 Blame and the Reactive Attitudes
- Chapter 4 Solving the Problem of Blame
- Part II Prescriptive Preservationism and Eliminativism
- References
- Index
Chapter 4 - Solving the Problem of Blame
from Part I - The Permissibility of Blame
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2022
- The Problem of Blame
- The Problem of Blame
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Permissibility of Blame
- Chapter 1 The Problem of Blame
- Chapter 2 The Structure of Basic Desert
- Chapter 3 Blame and the Reactive Attitudes
- Chapter 4 Solving the Problem of Blame
- Part II Prescriptive Preservationism and Eliminativism
- References
- Index
Summary
Here I argue that both the desert-based and value-based desiderata for a normatively adequate account of reactive blame can be met. First, adopting a victim-centered approach highlights the importance of blame for appropriately valuing other persons, and reactive blame is the variety of blame uniquely suited to serve this function. Thus the value-based desiderata for a normatively adequate account of reactive blame can be met. I then offer two arguments for thinking that the desert-based desiderata can be met. The first is a parity of reasons argument. Given epistemically relevant similarities between the negative reactive attitudes and a privileged subset of our moral judgments, we ought to extend the same privileged status to beliefs about the objects of the negative reactive attitudes. The second argument appeals to a similarity between our emotional experiences and perceptual experiences. Attending to this relation suggests that we have good reason to think some of our emotional experiences – those constitutive of the negative reactive attitudes in particular – provide indirect evidence for the existence of moral reasons that would render their content correct. Thus we have at least some good reason for thinking that the desert-based desideratum for normatively adequate reactive blame can be met.
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- The Problem of BlameMaking Sense of Moral Anger, pp. 92 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022