| FB-53968-08 | Research Programs: Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | Manuel Vargas | Beyond Atomism and Monism: A Revisionist View of Moral Responsibility | 7/1/2009 - 6/30/2010 | $50,400.00 | Manuel | | Vargas | | | | Regents of the University of California, San Diego | San Francisco | CA | 94117-1050 | USA | 2007 | Philosophy, General | Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
My aim is to answer recent philosophical and scientific puzzles about when, whether, and how we can be morally responsible. My account emphasizes three distinctive claims. First, I reject ATOMISM, or the view that the proper analysis of responsibility proceeds from analysis of the characteristics of agents, isolated from the social and physical contexts of action. I argue that responsible agency is partly constituted by social and psychological contexts. Second, I reject MONISM about free will, or the view that there is some single capacity or structure of agency that marks responsible agency. Instead, I argue that such agency is constituted by a varied set of capacities, picked out by our diverse practical interests in ascribing responsibility. Finally, I argue for REVISIONISM, the idea that an adequate theory of responsibility will depart from some parts of common sense. Together, these ideas provide a new framework for resolving ancient and recent problems of responsibility. |