Thomas Nagel in LRB: ‘The traditional problem is this: we blame and punish people for the bad things they have done, which seems to presuppose that they have free will. But even if those actions were a result of their bad character, that character is ultimately caused, if we go back far enough, by biological, psychological and social factors over which they have no control.’

And: ‘According to [T.M] Scanlon, morality does not emerge when we take an impartial, impersonal perspective on humanity; it emerges from the one-to-one relation each of us has with each other individual.’

As well: ‘Scanlon is certainly right that it is because humans can respond to reasons that we hold them, but not tigers, responsible. We differ, I suspect, in our views of what it is to respond to reasons.’

And what if some humans are part-time tigers? Legally insane versus morally insane.

(a sf 2131)