Manipulated Agents: A Window to Moral Responsibility
2019; Oxford University Press; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/pq/pqz039
ISSN1467-9213
Autores Tópico(s)War, Ethics, and Justification
ResumoIn his most recent book, Manipulated Agents: A Window to Moral Responsibility, Alfred Mele defends the view that an agent is morally responsible for an action only if the agent was not manipulated (in a sense I will soon illustrate) into performing that action. Consider the case of Sally from One Bad Day, a prominent case of manipulation in Mele's book: When Sally crawled into bed last night, she was one of the kindest, gentlest people on Earth. She was not always that way, however. When she was a teenager, Sally came to view herself, with some justification, as self-centered, petty, and somewhat cruel. She worked hard to improve her character, and she succeeded. When she dozed off, Sally's character was such that intentionally doing anyone serious bodily harm definitely was not an option for her: Her character—or collection of values—left no place for a desire to do such a thing to take root. Moreover, she was morally responsible, at least to a significant extent, for having the character she had. But Sally awakes with a desire to stalk and kill a neighbor, George. Although she had always found George unpleasant, she is very surprised by this desire. What happened is that, while Sally slept, a team of psychologists…implanted [new] values in Sally after erasing her competing values. They did this while leaving her memory intact, which helps account for her surprise. Sally reflects on her new desire…Seeing nothing that she regards as a good reason to refrain from stalking and killing George, provided that she can get away with it, Sally devises a plan for killing him; and she executes it—and him—that afternoon…When Sally falls asleep at the end of her horrible day, the manipulators undo everything they had done to her. (pp. 20–21)
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