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Moral responsibility and mental illness : a case study

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Broome, Matthew R., Bortolotti, Lisa and Mameli, Matteo. (2010) Moral responsibility and mental illness : a case study. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Vol.19 (No.2). pp. 179-187. ISSN 0963-1801

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0963180109990442

Abstract

Various authors have argued that progress in the neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric sciences might threaten the commonsense understanding of how the mind generates behavior, and, as a consequence, it might also threaten the commonsense ways of attributing moral responsibility, if not the very notion of moral responsibility. In the case of actions that result in undesirable outcomes (e.g., someone being harmed), the commonsense conception—which is reflected in sophisticated ways in the legal conception—tells us that there are circumstances in which the agent is entirely and fully responsible for the bad outcome (and deserves to be punished accordingly) and circumstances in which the agent is not at all responsible for the bad outcome (and thereby the agent does not deserve to be punished).

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Divisions:	Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Mental Health and Wellbeing Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Responsibility -- Case studies, Criminal liability -- Case studies, Offenders with mental disabilities -- Case studies
Journal or Publication Title:	Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0963-1801
Date:	April 2010
Volume:	Vol.19
Number:	No.2
Number of Pages:	9
Page Range:	pp. 179-187
Identification Number:	10.1017/S0963180109990442
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain) (AHRC)
Grant number:	AH/G002606/1 (AHRC)
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/6208