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Article: Sour grapes, self-abnegation and character building: non-responsibility and responsibility for self-induced preferences.
- Article from:
- The Monist
- Article date:
- April 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Hegeler Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction:
We usually withhold attributions of moral responsibility when a person acts on preferences that are induced without her consent by other people by means of conditioning, post-hypnotic suggestion, neurological fiddling and similar techniques. However, this is not generally the case when a person induces preferences in herself by the process of character building. However, the distinction between non-responsibility and responsibility for preferences does not map neatly onto the distinction between psychological induction by other and by self. Sometimes responsibility-grounding freedom of action and autonomy of will re compromised when a person induces ...