Ethics, Metaphysics, Philosophy

Aspects of Responsibility

July 5 - 13, 2010

Application deadline: 15 February, 2010
The application deadline has expired. Late applications are reviewed on a case by case basis.

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"The discussions, especially between the profs, were very illuminating. It was very helpful to hear both their worries/objections and their favored solutions."
(Course participant 2009)

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Course Directors: Timothy O'Connor, Indiana University at Bloomington, Department of Philosophy, USA
Andras Szigeti, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Faculty: Mark Balaguer, California State University-Los Angeles, Department of Philosophy, USA
Michael McKenna, Florida State University, Department of Philosophy, Tallahassee, USA
Derk Pereboom, Cornell University, The Sage School of Philosophy, Ithaca, USA



This summer school focuses on moral responsibility as a central problem of philosophical ethics and metaphysics. It also explores the relationship between responsibility and other important philosophical concepts such as agency, freedom, blame, moral luck, emotions, punishment, character and institutional action. By considering different aspects of responsibility, this course seeks to show why responsibility matters and how much really turns on our perception of ourselves as responsible beings.

The three main questions about moral responsibility that the course will seek to answer are the following:
  1. Under what conditions can someone be said to be a morally responsible agent?
  2. Do human beings satisfy these conditions (i.e. are they morally responsible agents)?
  3. What are the normative implications of being a morally responsible agent?
The course will be divided into two parts:

The first part is devoted to the metaphysics of moral responsibility and will therefore be concerned with various answers to questions (i) and (ii), including a range of classical as well as more recent incompatibilist and compatibilist approaches.

The second part of the course will concentrate on responsibility as an ethical and general normative concept and will therefore center on question (iii).

This summer school encourages applications from graduate students, junior faculty and researchers at departments of philosophy, political science and legal theory. Undergraduates without a university degree will not be considered. The course will be most suitable for participants who have pursued or intend to pursue independent research on some aspect of the subject. Students and researchers interested in cognate areas of metaphysics, ethics, legal theory and political theory (e.g. theories of causation, rationality, agency, distributive justice, egalitarianism, criminal law, etc.) can also benefit from the course.