EBOOK From Normativity to Responsibility

What are our duties or rights? How should we act? What are we responsible for? How        do we determine the answers to these questions? Joseph Raz examines and explains the        philosophical issues underlying these everyday quandaries. He explores the nature of        normativity--namely, the fact that we believe and feel we should behave in certain        ways, the reasoning behind certain beliefs and emotions, and various basic features        of making decisions about what to do. He goes on to consider whenwe are responsible        for our actions and omissions, and offers a novel account of responsibility. We can        think of responsibility for unjustified actions or attitudes as a precondition of        the blameworthiness of a person for an attitude or an action, or perhaps for a whole        set of actions, intentions, orbeliefs. Responsibility for justified actions or        attitudes may be a precondition of praiseworthiness. Either way responsibility may        point to further consequences of being justified or unjustified, rational or not.          But crucially, responsibility attaches to people in a more holistic way. Some people        are responsible for their actions, while others are not. In this way, Raz argues        that the end is in the beginning, in understanding how people are subject to        normativity, namely how it is that thereare reasons addressed to them, and what is        the meaning of that for our being in the world.