Blame and Responsibility

The project:

Our core objective is to bring together researchers in epistemology, ethics and metaphysics to shed light on key questions concerning blame including the following.

  • What is it to blame someone and under what conditions are we entitled to do so? Are groups, such as companies or governments, blameworthy?
  • To what extent can groups or individuals be held blameworthy for beliefs or behaviour which discriminate against women or minorities even when the beliefs and behaviour are subconscious and/or accepted practice?
  • What can be revealed about blame by the nature of forgiveness and apology?
  • How do our personal relationships with wrongdoers bear on the appropriateness of blaming them?”.

Project members:

Jessica Brown (St Andrews), Justin Snedegar (St Andrews)

Recent Publications:

Forthcoming: Justin Snedegar, “Dismissing Blame“, forthcoming in Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy.

2023:  Justin Snedegar, “Explaining Loss of Standing to Blame“, forthcoming in Journal of Moral Philosophy

2021: Jessica Brown,“Group motivation”. Nous 56, 2:494-510.

Jessica Brown, “Group excuse from blameless ignorance”. Philosophical Topics (2021) 49, 2:1-16.

2020: Jessica Brown, “What is epistemic blame?Nous 54,2: 389-407.

2019: Jessica Brown, “Epistemically blameworthy belief”. Philosophical Studies 177, 12: 3595-3614.