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Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
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What, if anything, does morality have to do with accountability?
According to Stephen Darwell of Yale University, the two are inextricable.
Stephen Darwal, welcome to philosophy bites.
Thank you very much.
It's great to be here.
The topic we're going to focus on is moral accountability.
Could we just start by outlining what accountability is in this area?
Well, by accountability I mean something in the region of what Peter Strawson, in his famous article freedom and resentment, was talking about when he talked about a distinctive kind of responsibility.
The point is that accountability is always to someone or other.
My claims have to do with the role of accountability in the concepts of moral obligation, moral rights, and so on.
And the thought is that these notions can't be understood except in terms of what it is to hold oneself accountable to others and hold others accountable to one, and that this is always, as I call it, a second personal relation.
It always involves an implicit address to oneself or to others as a you.
Could you give an example of this?
If I've understood you correctly, what you're saying is that to understand moral obligation, you have to recognize that at its core, there is some sort of relationship between the person who's accountable and another person.
Right?