Deep thinkers, cognitive misers, and moral responsibility

Abstract

Moral responsibility is running out of room. Scientific naturalism destroyed the realm of godlike transcendent powers, and recent research on learned helplessness (Martin Seligman, 1975) dragged will power down from the miracle working sphere of moral responsibility and anchored it squarely within the natural environment that shapes our fortitude and lassitude. Now moral responsibility has retreated to its ultimate citadel: the reflective mind. There, with the support of such philosophers as Daniel Dennett and Charles Taylor, moral responsibility has made stubborn stand.