Responsibility and Justice

In this lively and accessible book, Matt Matravers considers therole of responsibility in politics, morality and the law. In recentyears, responsibility has taken a central place in our lives. Inpolitics, both Tony Blair and George W. Bush have claimed thatindividual responsibility is at the centre of their policy agendas.In morality and the law, it seems just that people should berewarded or punished only for things for which they areresponsible. Yet responsibility is a hotly contested concept. Somephilosophers claim that it is impossible, while others insist onboth its possibility and importance. This debate has becomeincreasingly technical in the philosophical literature, but it isseldom connected to our practices of politics and the law.
Matravers asks, What are we doing when we hold people responsiblein deciding questions of distributive justice or of punishment?. Byaddressing this question, he not only shows how philosophy can helpin thinking about current political and legal controversies, butalso how we can keep hold of the idea of responsibility in an agein which we are increasingly impressed by the roles of genetics andenvironment in shaping us and our characters.