Moral responsibility for unprevented harm

Acta Analytica 19 (33):119-161 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

That we are morally responsible for what we do willingly and knowingly is a commonplace. That our moral responsibility extends as far as to cover at least the intended consequences of our voluntary actions and perhaps also the ones we did not intend, but could or did foresee, is equally beyond dispute. But what about omissions? Are we, or can we be, (equally) morally responsible for the harm that has occured because we did not prevent it, even though we could have done so? Say, for all the enormous suffering, caused daily by famine, deprivation and curable diseases in the Third World countries? Moral intuitions and practices that one could consult in this matter seem to leave us in the dark. We regularly ascribe responsibility to people for harms resulting from their negligence or failure to fulfill professional duties. On the other hand, we tend to think that unless there is some evidence of the causal contribution that agents made to a harmful event and/or state, it is not really fair to blame it on them. And finally, to complicate things even more, most of us deny that omissions could effect anything (any change) in the world and consequently regard them as causally impotent (as well as possibly harmless).

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

My way: essays on moral responsibility.John Martin Fischer - 2006 - New York: Oxford University Press.
How to be responsible for something without causing it.Carolina Sartorio - 2004 - Philosophical Perspectives 18 (1):315–336.
The Problem with Negligence.Matt King - 2009 - Social Theory and Practice 35 (4):577-595.
Climate Change and the Challenge of Moral Responsibility.Steve Vanderheiden - 2007 - Journal of Philosophical Research 32 (9999):85-92.
The Moral Limits of Criminalizing Remote Harms.Dennis J. Baker - 2007 - New Criminal Law Review 10 (3):370-391.
When responsibility can't do it.A. Gowri - 2004 - Journal of Business Ethics 54 (1):33-50.
Moral responsibility for harm caused by computer system failures.Douglas Birsch - 2004 - Ethics and Information Technology 6 (4):233-245.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
85 (#182,120)

6 months
5 (#246,492)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Friderik Klampfer
University of Maribor

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Principles of biomedical ethics.Tom L. Beauchamp - 1979 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by James F. Childress.
Practical Ethics.Peter Singer - 1979 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Susan J. Armstrong & Richard George Botzler.
Utilitarianism: For and Against.J. J. C. Smart & Bernard Williams - 1973 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Bernard Williams.
Normative Ethics.Shelly Kagan - 1998 - Westview Press.
The facts of causation.D. H. Mellor - 1995 - New York: Routledge.

View all 58 references / Add more references