Moral Agency, Freewill, and Responsibility: Module Three

Module Three
Why is this important? If you notice, most of our moral issues such as
abortion, death penalty, euthanasia, animal rights, etc. can be resolved
depending on our views regarding who are considered persons or
not. The problem is that there are conflicting theories that make it
difficult for us to judge whether a being is considered a person or not.
Understanding the Moral Agent
Moral Agency is an individual's ability to make moral judgments A Moral Agent is a person who has the ability to discern
based on some notion of right and wrong and to be held good and evil acts guided by a rational basis for making a
accountable for these actions. It is the ability of a person to discern moral judgment on a specific act. Being a moral agent
what is right and wrong based on a perceived notion of good and bad. entails moral responsibility because you have the ability
to pass judgment towards an action, you therefore bear the
How can one have moral responsibility over an action? The burden of responsibility for that said action.
moral responsibility is determined if you have freedom in doing the
act. This means that you are not forced or coerced to do that specific
Thought Experiments. Consider the following scenarios.
Moral Agency, Freewill,

act. This freedom can be of two sense: Circumstantial Freedom or
the freedom to act—the type of freedom that makes you do whatever
you want to do, and Metaphysical Freedom or Freewill or freedom
Discuss if the main character in each scenario is morally
responsible for the actions that has happened.
1. A jail warden was charged with negligence after he
to choose—the freedom of having genuine choices to do among the
available options. and Responsibility failed to prevent the escape of some prisoners. He came
up with an alibi: He was escorting the prisoners back
from the courtroom when one of them threatened to
shoot if they were not released. The inmate happened
to have a gun that was secretly given to him by an
accomplice while the hearing was going on. The warden
was taking all the precautions in accordance with their
In judging the morality of an action, it is necessary to identify if the operations manual, but he was not ready for the gun.
recipient or doer of an actions are moral persons. A Person is a The prisoner threatened to kill him if he did not unlock
being who is a part of our moral community. This entails that a their handcuffs. Since there was no one else around in
person can do a good or bad action, and they can receive an action that secluded part of the road, the lone warden could
that can be deemed good or bad. What this implies is that only not call for help. He saved his life by releasing the
persons can have moral agency, and that moral judgment can also culprits. He tried his best to convince the prisoners not
be passed if it is done towards a person. What then are the criteria to proceed with their escape, but he did not succeed. He
for personhood? Here are a few theories: waited for an opportunity to grab the bun but that
never came.
Criteria for Personhood
Considered as Not Considered 2. Twelve soldiers were told that they were on a mission
Criteria Description to track rebels who had burned all the houses and
Persons as Persons
People, fetus, killed all the men in a remote village. They were
Pets, aliens,
A being is a person if it has
coma patients,
plants, the brought to an area were the rebels were supposed to
Genetic or is made of Human DNA.
human
environment, have some children as hostage. When the got to the site,
excrement,
animals they were ordered to fire on their “enemies” who all
criminals…
A being is a person if it has
died as a result. The following day, the soldiers learned
some or all of the People without Human through the news that the people they thought were
following cognitive traits: cognitive excrement, coma “enemies” were actually innocent farmers suspected of
Cognitive consciousness, reasoning, disabilities, patients, people being sympathetic to the underground movement. They
self-motivated actions, some animals, with cognitive said that they would have disobeyed orders had they
capacity to communicate, criminals disabilities, fetus know who the “enemies” really were.
and self-awareness.
a being is a person and 3. A Bangladeshi farmer is too poor to own a radio, so he
when society recognizes People, fetus, had no warning last week that a cyclone would rip
Criminals, people
Social him/her as a person, or coma patients,
who self-isolate through their small town, destroying his home and
whenever someone cares pets
about them. wiping out his family. By the time he and his wife
People who realized how high the tide has risen, they had no way to
cannot feel escape except by climbing onto their roof. But as the
a being is a person if it has People, pets,
pleasure/pain, water surged, the roof gave way under their weight,
Sentient sentience, or the ability to some criminals,
feel pleasure and/or pain. disabled people
coma patients, dumping the farmer, his wife, and three sons into the
fetus (first current. His wife, carrying their 1-year old son, was
trimester)
quickly swept away. The two other boys, 3 and 5, clung
to his neck. “They were holding me so tightly by the
neck, I could not breath” said the farmer. “Finally, I had
to remove their hands so I could live.” He cried, “Oh,
God! I killed my own sons”. The farmer survived by
wrapping his legs around a tree.

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