KJuris: Dana Kay Nelkin - Normative Powers and Responsibility Practices

Normative Powers and Responsibility Practices

There has been much recent discussion of whether and, if so when, people possess standing to respond to wrongdoing in various ways, notably by blaming and forgiving. Theorists disagree about a number of claims, including how best to understand the nature of standing, under what conditions it is undermined, whether it applies to the mere possession of certain attitudes, and more. In this paper, I identify a number of extant arguments and conclusions that I think are correct, but have not been put together in a single package. When they are, I believe they provide mutual support and illumination. In particular, I endorse a picture that incorporates a conception of standing as a normative power modeled after the notion of standing in the law, supports the existence of a central kind of forgiveness as a kind of debt release, offers a plausible account of the relationship between blaming and holding accountable, explains why blame seems to come in degrees where forgiveness of an important sort does not, and explains an asymmetry in debates about hypocrisy and “meddling". I conclude by exploring implications for debates about self-blame and the standing of the state.

Dana Kay Nelkin (Ph.D. UCLA) is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. Her areas of research include moral psychology, ethics, bioethics, and philosophy of law. She is the author of Making Sense of Freedom and Responsibility (Oxford University Press), and a number of articles on a variety of topics, including self-deception, friendship, the lottery paradox, moral luck, psychopathy, forgiveness, and praise and blame. She is also a co-editor of the The Ethics and Law of Omissions, The Oxford Handbook of Moral Responsibility, and Forgiveness: New Essays. Her work in moral psychology includes participation in an interdisciplinary research collaboration of philosophers and psychologists, The Moral Judgements Project.

Wednesday 11 February 2026

Ante Room (SW1.17), Somerset House East Wing, Strand Campus, King's College London

17:00-19:00

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