Responsibility from the Margins

ISBN-13: 9780198715672 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 288 str.

P. David Shoemaker

Opis

David Shoemaker presents an original, pluralistic theory of the nature of responsibility, built out of the different kinds of emotional responses people tend to have to the expressions of different kinds of quality of will. The approach is motivated by the ambivalent reactions had to several real-life agents on the margins of our moral responsibility communities, including those with clinical depression, Alzheimer's dementia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychopathy, autism, and intellectual disabilities. Shoemaker develops and defends a tripartite theory of responsibility, with attributability being about quality of character, answerability being about quality of judgment, and accountability being about quality of regard. Armed with crucial empirical details, Shoemaker then investigates the predictions of the theory for each specific type of marginal agent, as well as what practical advice the theory might imply for their caregivers and loved ones."David Shoemaker presents an original, pluralistic theory of the nature of responsibility, built out of the different kinds of emotional responses people tend to have to the expressions of different kinds of quality of will. The approach is motivated by the ambivalent reactions had to several real-life agents on the margins of our moral responsibility communities, including those with clinical depression, Alzheimer's dementia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychopathy, autism, and intellectual disabilities. Shoemaker develops and defends a tripartite theory of responsibility, with attributability being about quality of character, answerability being about quality of judgment, and accountability being about quality of regard. Armed with crucial empirical details, Shoemaker then investigates the predictions of the theory for each specific type of marginal agent, as well as what practical advice the theory might imply for their caregivers and loved ones.

Recenzje

It is both technically precise as well as clear and accessible, and should be of interest to philosophers, psychological theorists, mental health professionals and caregivers to those who fit the "marginal" label. It breaks new ground in the philosophy of responsibility by drawing important distinctions between types of attitudes associated with responsibility that have long been overlooked and has major practical significance due to the inclusion of suggestions for how our ways of treating marginal agents can be improved... Responsibility from the Margins is a refreshing new take on an old philosophical issue that also provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary presentation of new work on the moral emotions and related psychiatric disorders. Anyone who thinks about such issues or has marginal agents in their life, and is unsure of how to relate to those individuals, should find it valuable.

O autorze

David Shoemaker is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy & Murphy Institute at Tulane University. He is the author of numerous articles on agency and moral responsibility, normative and applied ethics, and personal identity, and he is the general editor of the series Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility.