Galen Strawson's Argument Analysis

Every person is responsible for his or her actions. As Smail Balic said in his response essay “No soul carries the burden of another. ”(110) Only the guilty can absolve their guilt, but sometimes it takes the acknowledgment and words of another human to reach this release. This can be as small as a person who makes a rude remark to another then someone else steps in and calls them out.

In the paper “Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility”, Susan Wolf discusses her ideas on what is necessary for an individual to be responsible for their actions. She argues that in order for the person to be held morally responsible for their actions, they need to be morally sane. To consider one to be morally sane, this individual must have an ideology that is able for them to distinguish right from wrong. Hence, a morally sane person must be able to reason and have a sound mind. Furthermore, Wolf establishes the sane deep-self view by applying other philosopher’s ideas.

In other words, free will dictates the level of responsibility we claim for our actions. If outside forces were to be in control of the choices we make, then we cannot be held responsible for our actions. However, if we have total freedom over the choices we make, then we certainly must claim responsibility over our actions. In Paul Holbach’s essay, “The Illusion of Freewill”, Holbach presents the argument that free will is simply an illusion that the human mind has created for us.

The Dangers Of Responsibility Responsibility is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. Responsibility is something that every human needs. A lack of responsibility can be harmful to the person and the people around them and a plethora of responsibility can change a person 's life. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley’s portrayal of Victor as selfish suggests that not taking responsibility can lead to pain, death, and the suffering of others as the reader sees in the novel which relates to today 's society of powerful countries not taking responsibility for the weapons that they create, and the damage that is revealed as a result.

Survival doesn’t always come easy, most of the time you will have to make decisions that will make others judge you, whether you like it or not. For example, if someone left their friend to save themselves, should these people be held accountable for their actions? People shouldn’t be held accountable for those actions because when it comes to life or death that’s so much pressure to that person so of course they’re going to make mistakes and everyone makes mistakes we just have to learn from them. However, people will argue that if they put themselves in that situation they should be held accountable for their action In a story titled The Seventh Man, The story is about a boy and his friend who go to the beach after a storm and they end up in a life or death situation. When they were on the beach out of nowhere a huge wave starts to come towards them, which can kill them both, the Seventh man makes a decision “i told myself to to run over to K….

“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.” ~ Moliere. The quote above will be used to help blame those for the death and shows how being irresponsible can have fatal consequences. William Shakespeare also known as the writer of the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, a beloved tail were to lovers cross-paths and anticipate that faith has brought them together has a not so satisfying ending.

Responsibility means being in charge of your choices and accepting the consequences of your actions. Responsibility means being accountable for yourself, and recognizing that our actions have consequences. Being accountable means to not blame others for your actions or take credit of other’s actions. Responsibility also means showing self-restraint. Self-restraint means restraining yourself from short term activities that could have negative consequences on yourself or your reputation.

Equally people will say that that they should and shouldn 't be held accountable on this life or death situations. For instance… people have chosen this situation that they want to do and they know that they could be held accountable like for example in the story the life of pi, the boy was on a raft with the tiger and they were on each side of the boat but the boy was scared of getting eat by the tiger because the tiger had that look in his eyes of hunger so the boy decided to make a raft near the boat so he would still be alive. They should not be held accountable for this because it is there life and their choosing what they want to do to be free or take something off a bucket list. However... people can chose of what they want to do but they need to think before they do it to test if they are ready for it or that they won 't be scared and know the consequences of what might happen. Also how people even though they don 't know they should have checked first.

If an agent cannot proceed differently in an event then the agent cannot be held morally responsible for the event. If we accept indeterminism then we believe that for an event to happen there is no control over it. The agent cannot cause the event but rather the possibility is that event will happen on chance. An agent cannot be held morally responsible for an event which just happened randomly. Chisholm thinks that, for an agent to be held responsible for an event, the event must not be caused by mere chance & it must not be caused by another event but rather the agent must cause the event.

Wolf proposes the sane deep-self view states that for an individual to be morally responsible for some action they have committed, if and only if (1) this individual is able to control that action by their desires, as well as such desires are governed by their deep selves, and (2) the individual’s deep self is sane. Consequently, Wolf’s proposal evidently proves why JoJo cannot be held responsible for his actions committed. Hence, JoJo is an insane individual. For one to be considered sane, Wolf claims one must have an idea of what one is doing and to have beliefs/values that correctly correspond with the way the state of the world is. JoJo’s beliefs and values essentially do not match up with how the state of the world is and thus he is considered insane and is suffering

In “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt” by Nancy Sherman, one has done no wrong, but still has guilt, even in situations that are unexpected, as this happens way too much, and that those who have done wrongdoing should be feeling guilty. She states, “We often take responsibility in a way that goes beyond what we can reasonably be held responsible for. And we feel the guilt that comes with that sense of responsibility. Nietzsche is the modern philosopher who well understood this phenomenon: “Das schlechte Gewissen,” (literally, “bad conscience”)-his term for the consciousness of guilt where one has done no wrong, doesn’t grow in the soil where we would most expect it, he argued, such as in prisons where there are actually “guilty” parties who should feel remorse for wrongdoing”(Sherman 154). Illustrating, this proves that we take the responsibility for actions that we did not do, and should not feel any remorse, but that the people who have done wrongdoing, should have this feeling of guilt.

We may not have complete control over our lives, but let us not fail to pay attention to our intuitions and our experiences of it. Many aspects go into deciding whether one is morally good or bad and ultimately can be traced back to

Lucy Bichakhchyan Introduction to Philosophy Second Short Written Assignment GALEN STRAWSON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY Galen Strawson is a British philosopher, who is famous for his philosophical works on free will, panpsychism, causality, determinism etc. This paper is about his article “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility”. The title of the article already gives away the stand that Strawson has considering Moral Responsibility..

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he outlines the different scenarios in which one is responsible for her actions.  There is, however, a possible objection which raises the possibility that nobody is responsible for their actions.  Are we responsible for some of our actions after all?   If so, under what circumstances?

In a simpler matter, you do what you do because of the way you are. To be truly morally responsible for what you do, you must be responsible for the way you are. But, you cannot be truly responsible for the way you are; therefore, you cannot truly be morally responsible for what you do. Strawson follows this explanation of the argument by stating that we are what we are, and no punishment or reward is "fitting" for us.