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Exempt or excused? Rethinking Mental Disorder in the Responsibility Context

Mental disorder is sometimes relevant to assessments of responsibility. On traditional accounts, mental disorder is relevant when it undermines the threshold capacity required to be a moral agent. On this view, mental disorder thus speaks to an individual’s status as an agent and thereby exempts them of responsibility. Recent scholarship has argued that, barring some severe cases, mental disorder should instead ground exculpation. In this talk, I argue that to excuse rather than exempt on the basis of mental disorder, we must reconceptualize mental disorder. I argue that doing so requires reframing mental disorder in the responsibility context as a difficulty external to the person that reasonably interferes with appropriate action and explore some cases where this might plausibly be established.

► This event is in-person. Join in person at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin Building room 200).

Emily Baron

Philosophy
University of Toronto

Wed, Mar 12, 2025
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin