Introduction

• Excuses for immoral actions

  • You were forced
  • You did not know it was wrong
• The whole discussion of free will and moral responsibility is centred around the idea that you cannot be held morally responsible for an action you were forced to do or did not understand
• If you are ignorant of the significance of what you are doing, then you should not be held morally responsible. This does not mean you are free from consequence
• If you are forced to do an action and you have no choice to not do the action, then you cannot be held responsible
• If you are forced to do an action and you have no choice to not do the action, then you cannot be held morally responsible
• "Only voluntary actions qualify for praise or blame"- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
• To be morally responsible, people must have acted through their own free will
• Are people who have been hypnotised morally responsible for their actions?

  No
• Are people who have been brainwashed morally responsible for their actions?


  No
• Machines cannot make free choices and are not capable of independent thought, so cannot be held morally responsible for what they do
• Machines, cars and computers are dependent on those who programme or operates them
• Who is held morally responsible if something goes wrong with a machine?


  The conscious agent
• In the case of murder, it is always the conscious agent who kills the person
• Animals cannot be held morally responsible for what they do because they act out of natural survival instincts
• Who is morally responsible for an aggressive dog attacking a person?

  Owner
• In the case of covid, the virus was responsible for the deaths, but the virus cannot be held morally responsible