Moral luck

[Nearly Sane]

Nice little essay on how we think of blame and responsibility


https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-tell-a-bad-person-from-a-person-who-did-a-bad-thing

[ekim]

Another character was Lucky Killer who drunkenly swerved and killed a pedestrian who was carrying explosives to use in a bombing attempt in a nearby club.

[ad_orientem]

I have real life experience of this. My father died in a road traffic accident a number of years ago because someone tried to overtake him on a bend on a single carriageway (the person who caused the accident also lost his wife and child). Back in my stupid youth I used to drive pissed out of my skull. I have no doubt that he never intended to cause the deaths of his family or my father. Unfortunately for him he got unlucky in his stupidity. As for me I got lucky in my stupidity and never caused anyone any harm. Morally our actions were the same though.

[Nearly Sane]

The death of your father must have been horrendous ad_o! I agree with you and the author. There is no moral difference but the moral luck approach does seem to address the paradox.

A friend of mine was killed by a single punch thrown by an idiot trying to impress his girlfriend. The idiot was jailed for 4 years because it was a reprehensible but not intended action. There was no previous to indicate that he was a 'bad person'. Some of my friends thought it was too low but then on the basis of intention we would lock up everyone who has ever thrown a punch for as long.

I am in the position of Night Blindness in relation to that scenario. Given my size, I am conscious that a single punch could well be serious even if it is in retaliation.