Matthew Talbert
Biographic Data
| ID | 1175970 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Talbert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Talbert |
| SIGNATURE | TALBERT M |
| AFFILIATIONS | West Virginia University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1522-2023 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Blameworthiness and Causal Outcomes
It is widely held that whether a person is morally responsible for an outcome partly depends on whether certain causal relations obtain between that person and the outcome. This paper argues that, regardless of whether the preceding claim about moral responsibility is true, moral blameworthiness is independent of such causal considerations. This conclusion is motivated by considering cases from Carolina Sartorio and Sara Bernstein. The causal str…
Actions, Omissions, and the Significance of Responsibility for Outcomes
An agent’s actions or omissions will bear a causal/explanatory relation to the outcomes for which the agent is morally responsible. I rely on this observation in assisting John Martin Fischer in his response to an argument from Philip Swenson. Fischer’s response depends on the claim that responsibility for omissions requires the ability to do otherwise while responsibility for actions does not. I offer support for this claim of Fischer’s. After t…
Blaming Reasonable Wrongdoers
Morality and Agency
War Crimes
In 2005, US Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. How should we assess the perpetrators of this and other war crimes? Is it unfair to blame the Marines because they were subject to situational pressures such as combat stress? Or should they be held responsible for their actions, since they intentionally chose to kill civilians? In this book, we take up these questions and propose a provocative theory of the causes of w…
Explaining Behavior
This chapter explores the relationship between the crimes committed by American troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo’s experiment is one of the most famous of a large body of social psychology experiments that support the “situationist” perspective on human behavior. A central situationist claim is that features of the situations in which people act have a greater influence on behavio…
War Crimes
Moral Competence, Moral Blame, and Protest
Implanted Desires, Self-Formation, and Blame
Some theories of moral responsibility assert that whether a person is accountable for her behavior depends partly on facts about her personal history. Those who advocate such a “historicist” outlook often hold, for example, that people who unwillingly acquire morally corrupt dispositions are not blameworthy for the wrong actions that issue from these dispositions; this contention is frequently supported by thought experiments involving instances …
Situationism, Normative Competence, and Responsibility for Wartime Behavior
Mapping Responsibility
Contractualism and Our Duties to Nonhuman Animals
Contractualism and Our Duties to Nonhuman Animals
Mapping Responsibility
Implanted Desires, Self-Formation, and Blame
Some theories of moral responsibility assert that whether a person is accountable for her behavior depends partly on facts about her personal history. Those who advocate such a “historicist” outlook often hold, for example, that people who unwillingly acquire morally corrupt dispositions are not blameworthy for the wrong actions that issue from these dispositions; this contention is frequently supported by thought experiments involving instances …
Situationism, Normative Competence, and Responsibility for Wartime Behavior
Moral Competence, Moral Blame, and Protest
War Crimes
In 2005, US Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. How should we assess the perpetrators of this and other war crimes? Is it unfair to blame the Marines because they were subject to situational pressures such as combat stress? Or should they be held responsible for their actions, since they intentionally chose to kill civilians? In this book, we take up these questions and propose a provocative theory of the causes of w…
Explaining Behavior
This chapter explores the relationship between the crimes committed by American troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo’s experiment is one of the most famous of a large body of social psychology experiments that support the “situationist” perspective on human behavior. A central situationist claim is that features of the situations in which people act have a greater influence on behavio…
War Crimes
Morality and Agency
Blaming Reasonable Wrongdoers
Actions, Omissions, and the Significance of Responsibility for Outcomes
An agent’s actions or omissions will bear a causal/explanatory relation to the outcomes for which the agent is morally responsible. I rely on this observation in assisting John Martin Fischer in his response to an argument from Philip Swenson. Fischer’s response depends on the claim that responsibility for omissions requires the ability to do otherwise while responsibility for actions does not. I offer support for this claim of Fischer’s. After t…
Blameworthiness and Causal Outcomes
It is widely held that whether a person is morally responsible for an outcome partly depends on whether certain causal relations obtain between that person and the outcome. This paper argues that, regardless of whether the preceding claim about moral responsibility is true, moral blameworthiness is independent of such causal considerations. This conclusion is motivated by considering cases from Carolina Sartorio and Sara Bernstein. The causal str…
Epistemology (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Moral responsibility (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Blame (4 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (4 works) · Sociology (4 works)