CFP: Responsibility - The Epistemic Dimension

Inquiries into responsibility often concerned problems of control and freedom. Recently, however, theorists have turned their attention to the epistemic side of responsibility. Many agree that there is an epistemic restriction on what we are responsible for. Specifically, we are not responsible, it seems, if we are ignorant about alternative courses of action, or if we are ignorant about certain outcomes of the things we do. We are not responsible for our so-called slavery footprint, for example, if we couldn't have known better. Yet the question is: when exactly does ignorance provide an excuse? Or in other words: what are the epistemic aspects of responsibility? This workshop brings together new papers on this focal topic.  

Invited speakers:

- Holly Smith, author of the classic paper 'Culpable Ignorance'

- Michael Zimmerman, author of 'Living with Uncertainty. The Moral Significance of Ignorance'

- Martin van Hees, co-author of 'An Anatomy of Moral Responsibility'  

Call for papers: Please send a 300 words abstract to [email protected] by 17 January 2014(questions can be directed to the same address).

Please note: this is a no-fee workshop, and in the next years we'll organize two more on related themes. Stay tuned!   More info in due course: