Responsibility, Dysfunction and Capacity

Vincent, Nicole A.

doi:10.1007/s12152-008-9022-8

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…2 Similar results are also found in Bipolar Disorders. Varga, Magnusson et al [12] report similar connections between insight and task failure in Bipolar I Disorder patients, for example.…”

Section: Lack Of Insight and Self-assessmentsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Reimer suggests that talk of psychopathy as a disorder may only be metaphorical, and that we might be able to characterize psychopathy without using a 'language of disorder'. Vincent [2] disagrees. She argues that moral agency is determined by the availability of the relevant capacities.…”

Section: Conceptualisation or Capacitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vincent [2] disputes this, she argues that moral responsibility lies with our capacity for moral agency, not how we conceptualize the individual. Responsibility is allocated according to the individual's capacity for moral action, not how we use language to characterize the individual.…”

Section: Conceptualisation or Capacitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their focus was on the depressed state, but since they found the same in mania patients I think it safe to assume that hypomania also involves a lack of insight. 2 Adida, Clark et al [8] think the likely substrate of the impairments to decision-making is brain lesions, specifically abnormalities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Areas associated with both mania and hypomania.…”

Section: Background Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We do not exculpate George because of his disorder. This is a view proposed by Vincent [2]. She argues that in some cases we ought not to reduce responsibility even when the agent has a disorder; indeed we may even hold the agent hyper-responsible because they have hyper-capacities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Are Disorders Sufficient for Reduced Responsibility?

Turner

2009

Neuroethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reimer (Neuroethics 2008) believes that how we use language to characterize psychopathy may affect our judgments of moral responsibility. If we say a psychopath has a disorder we may reduce their responsibility for moral failure. If we say a psychopath is merely different, we may not reduce their responsibility. Vincent (Neuroethics 2008) argues that if this were the case, a diagnosis of disorder would be both necessary and sufficient to reduce the responsibility of some agent for moral failure. Vincent presents two examples to suggest that a disorder is neither necessary nor sufficient to exculpate an individual for moral failure: childhood and hypomania. Vincent suggests instead that our judgments of moral responsibility ought to be based on the individual's capacity for moral agency. I will side with Vincent in this debate, but argue that the example she uses, hypomania, does not work. I will argue that a diagnosis of hypomania, part of Bipolar II Disorder, is sufficient to exculpate an individual for some moral failure. This is because there are responsibility-relevant capacities missing: the capacities for self-awareness and to control ones abilities. Without these capacities, the individual is not a responsible moral agent. Vincent will need to provide an alternative example to show that the presence of a disorder is not sufficient to exculpate an individual for moral failure. Whilst our use of language is important, that use reflects our judgments of the individual's capacities for moral agency. Responsibilities are determined not only by capacities, but by the right kind of capacities, and this should be reflected in our moral judgments, and our use of language.

show abstract

“…2 Similar results are also found in Bipolar Disorders. Varga, Magnusson et al [12] report similar connections between insight and task failure in Bipolar I Disorder patients, for example.…”

Section: Lack Of Insight and Self-assessmentsupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Conceptualisation or Capacitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptualisation or Capacitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 3 more Smart Citations