David Owens
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199691500
- eISBN:
- 9780191744938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691500.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Though neither blame nor guilt are themselves good or desirable, the fact that blame or guilt would be a good thing in certain circumstances is itself a good thing, at least in the context of certain ...
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Though neither blame nor guilt are themselves good or desirable, the fact that blame or guilt would be a good thing in certain circumstances is itself a good thing, at least in the context of certain relationships like friendship. Scanlon argues that apt blame tracks the value of such relationships. It is argued that apt blame is part of what gives such relationships their value. The superiority of value-constituting over value-tracking theories of blame becomes clear once we see that blame is a form of anger and distinguish the aptness of blame-as-anger from its accuracy. We also realize that apt blame has a wider scope than is usually imagined.Less
Though neither blame nor guilt are themselves good or desirable, the fact that blame or guilt would be a good thing in certain circumstances is itself a good thing, at least in the context of certain relationships like friendship. Scanlon argues that apt blame tracks the value of such relationships. It is argued that apt blame is part of what gives such relationships their value. The superiority of value-constituting over value-tracking theories of blame becomes clear once we see that blame is a form of anger and distinguish the aptness of blame-as-anger from its accuracy. We also realize that apt blame has a wider scope than is usually imagined.
