Abstract: For this work-in-progress talk, I’ll explore whether certain contextual features can undermine the propriety of otherwise fitting instances of blame. In essence, I’ll argue that blame can be expressed at the ‘wrong’ time, which I call ‘untimely blame’. I’ll focus on two types of cases: the first involves the blamer failing to consider the vulnerability of the wrongdoer (i.e., the target of blame). Less abstractly, consider cases where an agent has committed a wrongdoing, and is thus blameworthy, but they receive bad medical news or suffer a bereavement sometime following the relevant wrongdoing. In light of their vulnerability, it seems it is sometimes inappropriate to blame them while they are in this state, which may in some cases be permanent. Subsequently, I’ll consider cases where the circumstances under which blame is issued are more ‘pressing’ than the relevant wrongdoing. In contrast to cases of vulnerability, blaming someone at a wedding (or some other positive event) seems inappropriate because it would spoil the target’s good mood. With respect to vulnerability, I’ll address two objections: the first has it that this type of untimely blame is reducible to disproportional blame, while the second has it that this constraint is too epistemically demanding.
Patrick J. Winther-Larsen is a PhD student in philosophy at the University of St Andrews. His area of specialization is moral responsibility and the main topic of his dissertation is the ethics of third-party blame. Other research interests of his include the ethics of forgiveness, praise, protest, grandstanding, and related phenomena.