Conceiving Autistic Moral Agency

Abstract

This essay explores the nature and scope of moral agency and the ways in which attention to autistic moral experience both complicates and enriches our understanding of this term. I argue that the recent work of Brian Brock and Grant Macaskill provides a starting point for developing an account of autistic moral agency as experienced both through maximizing individual capacities for personal responsibility and through participating in meaningful communal relationships as part of the church. I conclude by briefly recognizing two additional lines of thought that need to be addressed in developing an account of autistic moral agency. First, there is need for a more precise analysis of the relation between moral formation and therapeutic intervention. Second, scholars should attend more directly to the ways in which racial disparities in diagnosing and treating autistic individuals must inform our understanding of formation, virtues, and the goods associated with autistic moral agency.