What does Strawson mean when he claims that nothing can be causa sui?

Galen Strawson makes a similar case for the impossibility of moral responsibility with his so-called Basic Argument (1986, 1994, 2011). The central argument can be summarized as follows: Nothing can be causa sui—nothing can be the cause of itself. Therefore, no one can be truly or ultimately morally responsible.

What is the problem of moral responsibility?

problem of moral responsibility, the problem of reconciling the belief that people are morally responsible for what they do with the apparent fact that humans do not have free will because their actions are causally determined. It is an ancient and enduring philosophical puzzle.

What is moral responsibility?

In philosophy, moral responsibility is the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission in accordance with one’s moral obligations. Deciding what (if anything) counts as “morally obligatory” is a principal concern of ethics.

What is the basic argument Strawson?

Galen Strawson developed a “Basic Argument” which attempts to prove that free will and moral responsibility do not exist. It is an extensive version of the logical and simplistic standard argument against free will.

What does Strawson believe about free will?

Kant held that our experience of moral obligation makes belief in strong free will inevitable. P. F. Strawson argued that the fundamental fact is that we are irresistibly committed to certain natural reactions to other people like gratitude and resentment.

Will an individual be held morally responsible for acts performed in ignorance?

You are morally responsible for your ignorance only if it derives from a failure to do what is morally required of people like you in your circumstances. But for all we have said, it may be that he has done everything that he was required to do, in which case his ignorance is non-culpable and he is off the hook.

Can we have moral responsibility without free will?

without free will there is no moral responsibility: if moral responsibility exists, then someone is morally responsible for something he has done or for something he has left undone; to be morally responsible for some act or failure to act is at least to be able to have acted otherwise, whatever else it may involve; to …

What are examples of moral responsibilities?

For example, one may have a moral obligation to help a friend, to support a parent in old age, or to minimally respect another’s autonomy as a moral agent. We can succeed in meeting, or fail to fulfil, our moral obligations.

What makes an action morally right or wrong?

bioethics. …that holds that the moral rightness or wrongness of an action should be ascertained in terms of the action’s consequences. According to one common formulation, an action is right if it would promote a greater amount of happiness for a greater number of people than would any other action performable…

What is an example of moral responsibility?

Why is moral responsibility important?

Making judgments about whether a person is morally responsible for her behavior, and holding others and ourselves responsible for actions and the consequences of actions, is a fundamental and familiar part of our moral practices and our interpersonal relationships.

Is the impossibility of moral responsibility a true argument?

GALEN STRAWSON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (Received 15 September 1993) I There is an argument, which I will call the Basic Argument, which appears to prove that we cannot be truly or ultimately morally respon- sible for our actions. According to the Basic Argument, it makes no difference whether determinism is true or false.

What is the basic argument of Galen Strawson?

Galen Strawson developed a “Basic Argument” which attempts to prove that free will and moral responsibility do not exist. It is an extensive version of the logical and simplistic standard argument against free will.

What did the elder Strawson say about determinism?

The elder Strawson said that such feelings, and the accompanying moral responsibility, would not disappear if determinism is true, at least for some thinkers he called “optimists,” roughly the same as compatibilists. However, he also recognized there were “pessimists,” roughly incompatibilists .

Do you have to be responsible for how you act?

But the mental factors are crucial when moral responsibility is in question.) (3) So if one is to be truly responsible for how one acts, one must be truly responsible for how one is, mentally speaking – at least in certain respects.