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Blame Responsibility

22 July, 2019 - 10:09
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To hold Fred responsible for the accident at Morales, we need to...

  1. Specify his role responsibilities and determine whether he carried them out
  2. Identify situation-based factors that limited his ability to execute his role responsibilities (These are factors that compel our actions or contribute to our ignorance of crucial features of the situation.)
  3. Determine if there is any moral fault present in the situation. For example, did Fred act on the basis of wrongful intention (Did he intend to harm Manuel by sabotaging the plant?), fail to exercise due care, exhibit negligence or recklessness?
  4. If Fred (a) failed to carry out any of his role responsibilities, (b) this failure contributed to the accident, and (c) Fred can offer no morally legitimate excuse to get himself of the hook, then Fred is blameworthy.

Fred, and other Incident at Morales stakeholders, can escape or minimize blame by establishing morally legitimate excuses. The following table associates common excuses with the formal conditions of imputability of blame responsibility. (Conditions of imputability are those conditions that allow us to associate an action with an agent for purposes of moral evaluation.)

Table 6.4 Excuse Table

Excuse Source (Capacity Responsibility)

Excuse Statement

Conflicts within a role responsibility and between different role responsibilities

I cannot, at the same time, carry out all my conflicting role responsibilities

Hostile Organizational Environment which routinely subordinates ethical to financial considerations.

The environment in which I work makes it impossible to act responsibly. My supervisor routinely overrules my professional judgment, and I can do nothing about it.

Overly determining situational constraints: financial and time

I lack the time and money to carry out my responsibility.

Overly determining situational constraints: technical and manufacturing

Carrying out my responsibility goes beyond technical or manufacturing limits.

Overly determining situational constraints: personal, social, legal, and political.

Personal, social, legal or political obstacles prevent me from carrying out my responsibilities.

Knowledge Limitations

Crucial facts about the situation were kept from me or could not be uncovered given even a reasonable effort.