Rethinking Responsibility

Rethinking Responsibility by K E Boxer

This book explores moral responsibility, and whether it is compatible with causal determinism. Its author, K. E. Boxer, started out with deeply incompatibilist intuitions but became dissatisfied with the arguments that she and other contemporary incompatibilists marshalled in support of this view. Rethinking Responsibility has evolved out of her search for a more adequate argument. Boxer suggests that if incompatibilists are to be in a position to provide such an argument, they must shift their attention away from metaphysics and back to what H. L. A. Hart deemed the primary sense of the concept of moral responsibility, viz., the sense of liability. To say that an agent is morally responsible for an action in this sense is to say that she satisfies the necessary causal and capacity conditions for desert of certain forms of response. If incompatibilists are to show that among those conditions is a requirement for some form of ultimate responsibility incompatible with determinism, they must first clarify their understanding of moral desert and the moral responses associated with attributions of responsibility. The book examines different possible understandings of moral liability-responsibility based on different possible accounts of the nature of moral blame, the moral desert of punishment, and the relation between desert of moral blame and desert of punishment. A focal point throughout the discussion is whether, on any of the possible understandings, moral responsibility would require agents to be ultimately responsible for their actions in a way incompatible with causal determinism. Other issues discussed include what renders a defect a moral defect or a particular criticism a moral criticism, whether moral obligations are act-governing or will-governing, the connection between the moral reactive attitudes and the retributive sentiments, the relevance of the capacity to participate in ordinary interpersonal relationships, and whether it is possible to understand the moral desert of punishment in communicative terms. Boxer concludes that incompatibilists face an unenviable choice: either they must adopt an understanding of the moral desert of punishment that many find morally problematic, or they must abandon incompatibilism.

This is a good book, and I learned a lot from reading itIt will appeal to anyone who is interested in the traditional debate concerning whether moral responsibility is compatible with determinism, as well as those who are interested in the concept of moral responsibility * Patrick Todd, Ethics *
The debate over the compatibility of moral responsibility and determinism is full of subtle difficulties, entrenched and recalcitrant positions, and what often seem dialectical stalemates. Rethinking Responsibility is an important and refreshing addition to that debate . . . Boxer's defense of her own position, including important forays into the nature of desert and punishment . . . will repay readers interested in moral responsibility, problems of agency, and free will. * Matt King, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Boxer's discussion here is both provocative and illuminating. * Kelly McCormick, Journal of Moral Philosophy *

Karin Boxer received her BA from Princeton University and her BPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford. She was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, and as of autumn 2012 takes up a visiting position at Amherst College.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199695324
ISBN 10	0199695326
Title	Rethinking Responsibility
Author	K E Boxer
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2013-02-07
Number of pages	192
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.