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Article: Determinism and its threat to the moral sentiments.
- 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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Few, including moral and political philosophers, economists, and sociologists, would deny the importance of the reactive attitudes such as forgiveness, guilt, repentance, gratitude, and indignation in our lives. Echoing Hume, Peter Strawson, for example, suggests that a number of these attitudes are required to sustain good interpersonal relationships or personal integrity. Much more strikingly, like Hume, Strawson argues that the moral sentiments constitute the very framework within which issues of freedom and responsibility arise. (1) For these and other reasons, in much of this paper, I shall take it for granted that we value these attitudes or sentiments, and we do so ...