What's Special about Moral Ignorance?

Ratio 30 (2) (2017)
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Abstract

According to an influential view by Elizabeth Harman, moral ignorance, as opposed to factual ignorance, never excuses one from blame. In defense of this view, Harman appeals to the following considerations: that moral ignorance always implies a lack of good will, and that moral truth is always accessible. In this paper, I clearly distinguish these considerations, and present challenges to both. If my arguments are successful, sometimes moral ignorance excuses.

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original Wieland, Jan Willem (2015) "What's Special about Moral Ignorance?". Ratio 30(2):149-164

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Jan Willem Wieland
VU University Amsterdam

Citations of this work

The epistemic condition for moral responsibility.Fernando Rudy-Hiller - 2018 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Rational Moral Ignorance.Zach Barnett - 2021 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (3):645-664.
Culpability for Moral Ignorance.Ninni Suni - 2025 - In David W. Shoemaker, Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, Volume 9. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Difficulty & quality of will: implications for moral ignorance.Anna Hartford - forthcoming - Tandf: Philosophical Explorations:1-18.

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References found in this work

Unprincipled virtue: an inquiry into moral agency.Nomy Arpaly - 2003 - New York: Oxford University Press.
In Praise of Desire.Nomy Arpaly & Timothy Schroeder - 2014 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Timothy Schroeder.
Involuntary sins.Robert Merrihew Adams - 1985 - Philosophical Review 94 (1):3-31.
Culpability and Ignorance.Gideon Rosen - 1998 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 103 (1):61-84.

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