Into the Frying Pan: Moral Responsibility and Excuses

Philosophy Society Seminar Series 2016/17

• Speaker: Paulina Sliwa (Cambridge)

All meetings take place 3.15-5pm in ERI 149. All welcome!

• Full 2016/17 seminar series
• For more information please contact the convenors: Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Alex Silk and Nick Jones 

Abstract
Excuses are commonplace. They are part and parcel of our ordinary practice of holding each other morally responsible. But excuses are also curious. They have normative power. Whether someone has an excuse for something they have done matters for what it is rational to think and feel and do about their action. The considerations we appeal to when making excuses are a motley bunch: they range from tiredness, stress, various distractions (a looming work deadline, a wailing infant), poverty, duress, and ignorance of various kinds. My project is to explain when and why these considerations function as excuses and what unifies them as a class. I am particularly interested in the question of just what exactly the normative power of excuses consists in and how far this normative power extends.