#moral-responsibility

#moral-responsibility

best summed up by Thomas Jefferson (1787), who wrote: "...ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can be always pretended" (para. 2). On its face, Jefferson's point seems reasonable. If all you had to do was feign ignorance to get a case dismissed, there'd be crowds of people wandering around with blank stares and airtight alibis ("Nobody told me arson was frowned upon.").

He lives with his wife and daughter on an isolated parcel of land in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He does his job as a logger efficiently and quietly, working in companionable silence with most of his co-workers. He doesn't get drunk; he isn't in debt; he doesn't get involved in situations that don't immediately seem to pertain to him. In other words, he minds his own business.

It's easier for humans to be dishonest if they delegate their actions to a machine agent like ChatGPT, according to a new scientific study recently published in the journal Nature. Artificial intelligence (AI) acts as a kind of psychological cushion that reduces the sense of moral responsibility. People find it harder to lie or do something irresponsible if they have to take the lead. AI, and its willingness to comply with any request from its users, can lead to a wave of cheating.

Billionaires are often lauded in America, but some condemn them as evil simply for being billionaires. This raises the moral issue of whether a person can be morally good and a billionaire. The issue is whether, in general, you could be a billionaire and still plausibly be a good person. Proper resolution of this issue requires determining which moral theory (if any) is correct. But we can rely to some degree on our moral intuitions and some basic logic.

Kant's account of evil makes three key claims with major consequences for moral agency and responsibility. First, the distinction between good and evil lies in the will (R 6:59). Unlike prior theories that locate evil in natural inclinations or external circumstances, Kant situates evil in the will's choice of maxims. This reveals that earlier theories misidentify both evil's source and its effect on agency, leading to misguided remedies (R 6:59).

"We start walking up to the Capitol, and we get the news that Pence betrayed us. He had way more power, and he wasn't willing to exercise it. And when Pence betrayed us is when we decided to storm the Capitol. (...) We just pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed, and yelled 'Go!' and yelled 'Charge!' And on and on and on, we just pushed and pushed and pushed-and we got in." (Jenny Cudd, recorded live video)

The Stephen J. White Prize, named after the late Dr. Stephen J. White, recognizes outstanding work by junior philosophers, highlighting critical themes in moral responsibility and practical reasoning.