Single Idea 23087

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / g. Moral responsibility]

Full Idea

If much evil is due to nonautonomous actions, then liberals cannot be right in idenitfying the domain of moral responsibility with the domain of autonomy.

Gist of Idea

Much human evil is not autonomous, so moral responsibility need not be autonomous

Source

John Kekes (Against Liberalism [1997], 02.1)

Book Reference

Kekes,John: 'Against Liberalism' [Cornell 1997], p.26


A Reaction

One might evade this anti-liberal thought by making responsibility directly proportional to degree of autonomy. Then the only counterexample would be genuine immorality that is entirely non-autonomous, but is there such a thing?

Related Idea

Idea 23089 Evil people may not be autonomously aware, if they misjudge the situation [Kekes]