Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:42:21.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Obligation and Control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2009

Ishtiyaque Haji
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Get access

Summary

One cannot perform an act that is morally right, wrong, or obligatory if one does not have appropriate control over that act; deontic acts presuppose control. This is, perhaps, most evident in the case of moral obligation. It is difficult to accept the verdict that Leno, though pinned to his seat, ought to have saved the child, or that the paraplegic ought to have walked across the lawn when ‘ought’ denotes moral obligation or requirement. Again, it is hard to see how Mitch did something that is morally wrong by failing to help the victim of the car crash when he could not have helped the victim. Or it is, minimally, puzzling to see how Zakir did moral wrong by stealing the loaf when he could not but have stolen it. One might, given apt circumstances, reasonably think that Zakir did something bad by stealing the loaf, but this judgment is consistent with Zakir's not having done wrong. Or, again, it is paradoxical to suppose that the mother's not spanking the child was morally right when she literally lacked the ability to spank her child. These enigmas are not merely pragmatic or do not simply have to do with substantive moral claims about what is fair but are conceptual; the verdict about the paraplegic, for instance, seems conceptually inconsistent. Such examples, and numerous others like them, motivate the view that one cannot do what is right, or wrong, or obligatory unless one has appropriate “deontic-grounding control” over what one does.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Obligation and Control
  • Ishtiyaque Haji, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Deontic Morality and Control
  • Online publication: 23 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498794.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Obligation and Control
  • Ishtiyaque Haji, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Deontic Morality and Control
  • Online publication: 23 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498794.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Obligation and Control
  • Ishtiyaque Haji, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Deontic Morality and Control
  • Online publication: 23 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498794.002
Available formats
×