Simon-Pierre Chevarie-Cossette (Université de Neuchâtel) will give a presentation (in person and on Zoom) titled « Il faut une faute pour faire un fautif ». The presentation will be offered in French. But those who wish to obtain the text in English need only write to valery.giroux@umontreal.ca.

To attend via Zoom, it’s here.

Abstract

Anyone blameworthy for an action had a duty not to do that action. This principle seems almost trivial; yet it has important consequences in the debate on free will, but also on moral luck and on the conceptual unity of responsibility. Even more, it makes it possible to account for the way in which we defend our conduct before our relatives or before the law. However, this principle has formidable adversaries (Scanlon, Zimmerman, Haji, Graham) to whom it will be necessary to respond by addressing, among other things, the nature of homework. The principle holds, provided that we avoid overly subjectivizing blame or overly objectivizing duties.