Moral Responsibility and the Problem of Many Hands

When many people are involved in an activity, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to pinpoint who is morally responsible for what-the 'problem of many hands.' This volume provides an in-depth philosophical analysis of this phenomenon, distinguishing between different normative meanings of responsibility.

"This book will be of use in its entirety to those who are concerned with practical issues of responsibility distribution in institutions, particularly institutions of a fairly technical nature." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Ibo van de Poel, Lambèr Royakkers, and Sjoerd D. Zwart have assembled the most comprehensive treatment yet of the problem of many hands, which has confounded assessments of individual responsibility in contexts of joint action and diffuse causality. Not only do they cogently capture the nature of this problem, both descriptively and formally, but they offer three compelling solutions to it, which should be of political as well as philosophical interest." Steven Vanderheiden, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA

Autorentext

Ibo van de Poel is Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor in Ethics and Technology at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Lambèr Royakkers is Associate Professor in Ethics and Technology in the School of Innovation Sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

Sjoerd D. Zwart is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Technology at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Inhalt

Introduction Ibo van de Poel and Lambèr Royakkers 1. Moral Responsibility Ibo van de Poel 2. The Problem of Many Hands Ibo van de Poel 3: A Formalisation of Moral Responsibility and the Problem of Many Hands Tiago de Lima and Lambèr Royakkers 4. Responsibility and the Problem of Many Hands in Networks Sjoerd D. Zwart 5. A Procedural Approach to Distributing Responsibility Neelke Doorn 6. Responsibility as a Virtue and the Problem of Many Hands Jessica Nihlén Fahlquist Conclusions: From Understanding to Avoiding the Problem of Many Hands Ibo van de Poel and Sjoerd D. Zwart