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Pedro's Significance |
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| Authors: | Christopher Woodard |
| Institution: | University of Nottingham, UK
Christopher Woodard is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, UK. His areas of interest are normative ethics and political philosophy. He is the author of Reasons, Patterns, and Cooperation (Routledge, 2008), as well as several journal articles. |
| Abstract: | Williams's famous story of Jim exemplifies a general class of dilemmas caused by recalcitrant agents. Like Williams himself, most commentators have focused on Jim and the idea that he has special responsibility for his actions. This paper shifts attention to Pedro, exploring his significance in the story and arguing that Jim has a reason not to shoot that depends on Pedro's best possible response. In so doing, it sketches a new approach to the general class of dilemmas posed by recalcitrant agents, drawing attention to the advantages of this approach and to the difficulties it faces and comparing it to rival views associated with Ross and Kamm. |
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