| Kommentar: |
Blame is an integral part of human relationships and moral life. This seminar investigates into two central questions about blame. The first one concerns the nature of blame: what is it to blame someone? Blaming someone seems to involve a kind of negative evaluation, but it seems to involve more. An important element of our blaming practice is hostile emotions typically accompanied by blame, such as resentment and indignation. Some people take such emotions to constitute the essence of blame, while others disagree and think that we can blame people in a „cool“ way, without targeting them with such emotions. Yet another group of philosophers think that blame has a distinctive function, such as protest, in light of which we can understand its nature. We will critically examine each of these views.
The second, related question concerns the ethics of blame: when is it appropriate to blame someone? It seems that certain conditions must obtain for someone to merit or deserve blame, such as the person’s being minimally morally competent. Moreover, even when someone is blameworthy, some other conditions must be satisfied for it to be appropriate for you to blame the person. For example, you need to have the standing to blame. We will inquire into what those conditions are.
This seminar will be taught in English, and will consist mainly in discussion on assigned readings. Active engagement with the texts and participation in class are essential. |
| Bemerkung: |
B.A. LA GyGe: M6: SE Metaethik; M11
B.A. LA HRSGe: M6A/6B: SE Metaethik
B.A. (ab WS 2012/13): M6: SE Metaethik; M11
M.A. (ab WS 2014/15): M1c, 2c, 3c: SE Moralphilosophie, Angewandte Ethik
M.Ed. GyGe (ab WS 2014/15): M4; M10
M.Ed. HRSGe (ab WS 2014/15): M4
M.A. Theorie des Sozialen: Kernmodul P2: Normative Dimension des Sozialen |
