The Nature and Significance of Blame

Abstract

This chapter examines the nature and significance of blame, including conceptions in terms of the cognitive or conative states of appraisers, the social functions of blame, and multi-dimensional clusters of psychological and social factors. It raises questions about the extensional and explanatory adequacy of these conceptions. The chapter defends a conception of the core and syndrome of blame. The core is an aversive attitude that an appraiser holds toward a target based on the belief that the target is blameworthy for some failure in attitude or conduct; the syndrome is a set of psychological and social factors that are normally, but not invariably, downstream from blame. The chapter argues that blame can presuppose blameworthiness without circularity and explores the significance of this conception of blame for the ethics of blame.