Levy Neil
Department of Philosophy, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia.
Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 1PT, UK.
J Bioeth Inq. 2018 Sep;15(3):459-468. doi: 10.1007/s11673-018-9860-y. Epub 2018 Jun 6.
There is a lively debate over who is to blame for the harms arising from unhealthy behaviours, like overeating and excessive drinking. In this paper, I argue that given how demanding the conditions required for moral responsibility actually are, we cannot be highly confident that anyone is ever morally responsible. I also adduce evidence that holding people responsible for their unhealthy behaviours has costs: it undermines public support for the measures that are likely to have the most impact on these harms. I claim that these two facts-the fact that we cannot be highly confident that anyone is morally responsible and the fact that holding people responsible for their unhealthy behaviours has costs-interact. Together they give us a powerful reason for believing, or acting as if we believed, that ordinary people are not in fact responsible for their unhealthy behaviours.
对于诸如暴饮暴食和过度饮酒等不健康行为所造成的危害该归咎于谁，存在着一场激烈的争论。在本文中，我认为鉴于道德责任实际所需的条件是如此苛刻，我们无法非常确信任何人曾负有道德责任。我还举出证据表明，让人们为自己的不健康行为负责是有代价的：它会削弱公众对那些可能对这些危害产生最大影响的措施的支持。我声称这两个事实——我们无法非常确信任何人负有道德责任，以及让人们为自己的不健康行为负责是有代价的——相互作用。它们共同为我们提供了一个有力的理由去相信，或者表现得好像我们相信，普通人实际上并不对自己的不健康行为负责。
