This edited volume of new essays explores the principles that govern moral responsibility and legal liability for omissive conduct behavior that did not occur. Many contributors here try to make sense of the possibility of moral responsibility for omissions, including those that occur unwittingly. The disagreements among them concern the grounds of moral responsibility in these cases: the constellation of states and traits that constitute the self, or the quality of one's will, or exercises of evaluative judgment, or the ability and opportunity to avoid the omission, or the tracing back to a time when one had the witting ability to take steps to avoid future omission. Some contributors consider whether omissions need to be under one's control if one is to be morally responsible for them, as well as which sense of "control" is relevant, if it is, to the question of moral responsibility. Yet others consider whether it is possible for an agent to be morally responsible for an omission that she could not have avoided. On the legal side, contributors also consider various issues concerning the status of omissions in the law: whether circumstances that are usually described as involving legal liability for omissions are better described as involving legal liability for entire courses of conduct; the conditions (such as creation of the peril) under which one can be legally liable for an omission to rescue; why a defendant's legal guilt for a crime can be predicated on an omission to act only if the defendant was under a legal duty to engage in the omitted act; and whether this "duty requirement" is grounded in the desirability of shielding from legal liability those who are not criminally culpable or in the constraint that one's body and property may not be appropriated for the general good. Included with the essays is an introduction to the topic by the volume editors. The book will be of interest to moral philosophers, philosophers of law, and other legal scholars.

About the Author
Dana Kay Nelkin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego and Affiliate Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. Her areas of research include ethics and moral psychology, and she has written articles on a variety of topics, including forgiveness, friendship, self-deception, and the lottery paradox, as well as a book, Making Sense of Freedom and Responsibility. Samuel C. Rickless is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego and Affiliate Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. His areas of research include ethics, philosophy of law, ancient Greek philosophy, and early modern European philosophy. He has authored books on Plato, George Berkeley, and John Locke, and has co-edited a volume on the ethics of war.


Book Information
ISBN 9780190683450
Author Dana Kay Nelkin
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 498g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 164mm * 24mm