Ethics, Metaphysics, Philosophy
Aspects of Responsibility
Aspects of Responsibility
Jul 13 - 24, 2009
| Course Directors: | Timothy O'Connor, Indiana University, Department of Philosophy, Bloomington, USA Andras Szigeti, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary |
| Faculty: | Mark Balaguer, California State University, Department of Philosophy , Los Angeles, USA Michael McKenna, Florida State University, Department of Philosophy, Tallahassee, USA Derk Pereboom, Cornell University, Department of Philosophy, Ithaca, USA Paul Russell, University of British Columbia, Department of Philosophy, Vancouver, Canada Thomas Pink, King's College, Department of Philosophy, London, UK |
This summer school focuses on moral responsibility as a central problem of philosophical ethics and metaphysics. It also explores the relationship between responsibility and other important philosophical concepts such as agency, freedom, blame, moral luck, emotions, punishment, character and institutional action. By considering different aspects of responsibility, this course seeks to show why responsibility matters and how much really turns on our perception of ourselves as responsible beings.
The three main questions about moral responsibility that the course will seek to answer are the following:
- Under what conditions can someone be said to be a morally responsible agent?
- Do human beings satisfy these conditions (i.e. are they morally responsible agents)?
- What are the normative implications of being a morally responsible agent?
The first part is devoted to the metaphysics of moral responsibility and will therefore be concerned with various answers to questions (i) and (ii), including a range of classical as well as more recent incompatibilist and compatibilist approaches.
The second part of the course will concentrate on responsibility as an ethical and general normative concept and will therefore center on question (iii)