Degrees of Responsibility

Abstract

Abstract Any adequate theory of moral responsibility must account for the fact that agents can be more or less morally responsible for their actions. To do this, a theory must answer two distinct questions. The first of these questions concerns what exactly it means to say that one agent is more (or less) responsible for her actions than some other agent who has also performed an action of that type. The second of these questions concerns the conditions that can affect or alter the degree to which an agent is more (or less) morally responsible for what she’s done. This chapter explores possible answers to these two questions, and although this isn’t all there is to say about degrees of responsibility, it is the bare minimum that adequate theories of moral responsibility owe us.