Moral Responsibility and Negligence

This paper examines moral responsibility for instances of negligence. It assumes throughout the common-sense claim that we can be morally responsible for cases of negligence, and then looks at the ramifications of this commitment for theories of moral responsibility. Specifically, I argue that instances of negligence pose a problem for two of the most influential theses regarding the nature of moral responsibility. First, negligence poses a problem for the Control Principle, the claim that control is necessary for moral responsibility. Second, negligence makes trouble for the Actual Sequence Thesis, the claim that facts about an agent’s moral responsibility are grounded solely in facts about the sequence of events leading up to the outcome. I end by suggesting that, contrary to the now more orthodox position, cases of negligence indicate that abilities to do otherwise are, at least sometimes, the basis of moral responsibility.