Against Moral Responsibility

In Against Moral Responsibility, Bruce Waller launches a spirited attack on a systemthat is profoundly entrenched in our society and its institutions, deeply rooted in our emotions,and vigorously defended by philosophers from ancient times to the present. Waller argues that,despite the creative defenses of it by contemporary thinkers, moral responsibility cannot survive inour naturalistic-scientific system. The scientific understanding of human behavior and the causesthat shape human character, he contends, leaves no room for moral responsibility. Waller argues thatmoral responsibility in all its forms--including criminal justice, distributive justice, and allclaims of just deserts--is fundamentally unfair and harmful and that its abolition will beliberating and beneficial. What we really want--natural human free will, moral judgments, meaningfulhuman relationships, creative abilities--would survive and flourish without moral responsibility. Inthe course of his argument, Waller examines the origins of the basic belief in moral responsibility,proposes a naturalistic understanding of free will, offers a detailed argument against moralresponsibility and critiques arguments in favor of it, gives a general account of what a worldwithout moral responsibility would look like, and examines the social and psychological aspects ofabolishing moral responsibility. Waller not only mounts a vigorous, and philosophically rigorous,attack on the moral responsibility system, but also celebrates the benefits that would result fromits total abolition.

Bruce N. Waller is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University. He is the author of The Natural Selection of Autonomy, Consider Ethics: Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues, and other books.