20167
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Blame partly rests on the fiction that blamed agents always know their obligations [Williams,B]
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Full Idea:
Blame rests, in part, on a fiction; the idea that ethical reasons, in particular the special kind of ethical reasons that are obligations, must, really, be available to the blamed agent.
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From:
Bernard Williams (How free does the will need to be? [1985], 5)
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A reaction:
In blaming someone, you may be telling them that they should know their obligations, rather than assuming that they do know them. How else can we give children a moral education?
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20992
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Right and wrong concerns what other people cannot reasonably reject [Scanlon]
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Full Idea:
Thinking about right and wrong is, at the most basic level, thinking about what could be justified to others on grounds that they, if appropriately motivated, could not reasonably reject.
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From:
Thomas M. Scanlon (What We Owe to Each Other [1998], Intro)
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A reaction:
The tricky bit is that the acceptance by others must be 'reasonable', so we need a reasonably objective view of rationality. Don't picture your neighbours, picture the locals when you are on holiday in a very different culture. Other Nazis?
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