Project
A Strawsonian Genealogy of Moral Responsibility
I have two main objectives. First, I aim to present and develop a philosophical method, called ‘Strawsonian genealogy’, for the study of internally diverse concepts (concepts which resist traditional conceptual analysis in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions). I will build upon the work of P.F. Strawson, compare his method to related methods in the work of L. Wittgenstein and B. Williams, and situate it within the contemporary methodological landscape. Second, I aim to show how the method of Strawsonian genealogy helps to provide new insights into the most influential paper in responsibility theory (P.F. Strawson's 'Freedom and Resentment') and new answers to key questions in the field, such as ‘Why do we have the concept of moral responsibility?’