Untangling Historical Injustice and Historical Ill
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Untangling Historical Injustice and Historical Ill. / Schefczyk, Michael; Wilker, Catharina (Translator).
In: Journal für Generationengerechtigkeit, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2009, p. 4-8.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Untangling Historical Injustice and Historical Ill
AU - Schefczyk, Michael
A2 - Wilker, Catharina
N1 - ISSN 1617-1799
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - This article distinguishes historical ills and historical injustices. It conceives of the latter as legalised natural crimes, committed by morally competent agents. A natural crime consists in the deliberate violation of a natural right. 'Legalised' means that the natural crime must be prescribed, permitted or tolerated by the legal system. I advocate an approach which assesses moral competence on the basis of an exposedness criterion, that is: a historical agent must not be blamed for failing to see the right moral reasons if his epoch and social world is utterly unacquainted with these reasons. However, an appropriate application of the exposedness criterion should take social factors and psychological mechanisms into account that obstruct access to the right reasons. I state a number of factors that seem to be auspicious for the development of moral competence.
AB - This article distinguishes historical ills and historical injustices. It conceives of the latter as legalised natural crimes, committed by morally competent agents. A natural crime consists in the deliberate violation of a natural right. 'Legalised' means that the natural crime must be prescribed, permitted or tolerated by the legal system. I advocate an approach which assesses moral competence on the basis of an exposedness criterion, that is: a historical agent must not be blamed for failing to see the right moral reasons if his epoch and social world is utterly unacquainted with these reasons. However, an appropriate application of the exposedness criterion should take social factors and psychological mechanisms into account that obstruct access to the right reasons. I state a number of factors that seem to be auspicious for the development of moral competence.
KW - Philosophy
KW - Politics
U2 - 10.24357/igjr.1.1.516
DO - 10.24357/igjr.1.1.516
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 9
SP - 4
EP - 8
JO - Journal für Generationengerechtigkeit
JF - Journal für Generationengerechtigkeit
SN - 1617-1799
IS - 1
ER -