In this lively and accessible book, Matt Matravers considers the
role of responsibility in politics, morality and the law. In recent
years, responsibility has taken a central place in our lives. In
politics, both Tony Blair and George W. Bush have claimed that
individual responsibility is at the centre of their policy agendas.
In morality and the law, it seems just that people should be
rewarded or punished only for things for which they are
responsible. Yet responsibility is a hotly contested concept. Some
philosophers claim that it is impossible, while others insist on
both its possibility and importance. This debate has become
increasingly technical in the philosophical literature, but it is
seldom connected to our practices of politics and the law.
Matravers asks, What are we doing when we hold people responsible
in deciding questions of distributive justice or of punishment?. By
addressing this question, he not only shows how philosophy can help
in thinking about current political and legal controversies, but
also how we can keep hold of the idea of responsibility in an age
in which we are increasingly impressed by the roles of genetics and
environment in shaping us and our characters.
Inhoudsopgave
Acknowledgements vi
1 The Many Faces of Responsibility 1
2 Thinking about Responsibility 14
3 Responsibility within Distributive Justice 65
4 Responsibility within Retributive Justice 111
5 Responsibility and Justice 140
Notes 146
References 158
Index 165
Over de auteur
Matt Matravers, University of York
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