Zachary Lang (Wadham): 'Interminability and the Limits of Third-Party Blame'
Title: 'Interminability and the Limits of Third-Party Blame'
Abstract: Interminability theorists hold that once someone becomes blameworthy, they remain so without end. For interminability to be true, it must be the case that someone could always fittingly blame the wrongdoer. In this talk, I argue that this success condition is not met. Proponents of interminability often point to third parties as those whose blame remains perpetually fitting. But on several plausible ways of specifying what third-party blame involves, it appears positively unfitting in certain cases. And while interminability theorists might retreat to alternative forms of blame, these alternatives are bound to lack blame’s characteristic sting. The upshot is that interminability theorists owe us an account of third-party blame that is both independently plausible and always fitting, and this promises to be a tricky task
