Moral Dimensions

In a clear and elegant style, T. M. Scanlon reframes current philosophical debates as he explores the moral permissibility of an action. Permissibility may seem to depend on the agents reasons for performing an action. For example, there seems to be an important moral difference between tactical bombing and a campaign by terroristseven if the same number of non-combatants are killedand this difference may seem to lie in the agents respective aims. However, Scanlon argues that the apparent dependence of permissibility on the agents reasons in such cases is merely a failure to distinguish between two kinds of moral assessment: assessment of the permissibility of an action and assessment of the way an agent decided what to do. Distinguishing between these two forms of assessment leads Scanlon to an important distinction between the permissibility of an action and its meaning: the significance for others of the agents willingness to act in this way. An actions meaning depends on the agents reasons for performing it in a way that its permissibility does not. Blame, he argues, is a response to the meaning of an action rather than its permissibility. This analysis leads to a novel account of the conditions of moral responsibility and to important conclusions about the ethics of blame.