Philosophy Talk: Mike Zhao (NYU)

Mike Zhao, Research Affiliate, will be giving a talk titled: "Guilt Without Perceived Wrongdoing" on Friday, January 31.  For more information on Mike, please visit his website.

Abstract:

According to the received account of guilt, one cannot feel guilt unless one takes oneself to have done something morally wrong. This might just sound obvious; it might seem tautological to say that guilt is a response to being guilty of wrongdoing. But if we look at the cases in which ordinary people describe themselves as feeling "guilt," we see that perceived wrongdoing is often absent: people feel guilt about things that their country or ancestors have done, about violating non-moral norms, and about surviving things that others did not. In this talk, I argue against the received account of guilt, focusing on the case of guilt about mere causal responsibility for some harm to others. I then propose a novel account of guilt that is compatible with guilt about mere causal responsibility.