Ethics and the psychology of moral luck

Shaun Nichols

It seems plausible that people only deserve blame or punishment for things that are under their control.  However, we are also inclined to blame people more when their actions produce bad outcomes, even when the outcome was a result of bad luck.  This tension underwrites the problem of moral luck. In this talk, I will explore whether psychological work can help resolve the tension.  Recent empirical work attempts to uncover the factors that influence how outcomes impact our judgments of blame and punishment.  I will present evidence that aims in part to assess whether outcome influences blame by affecting our epistemic evaluation of the agent. In light of this evidence, I will argue against globally reversing the influence of bad luck on our assessments of the extent to which a person deserves blame and punishment.