Rehabilitating Agent Regret

Rehabilitating Agent Regret

Robert B. Tierney

In this paper I will offer an analysis of Bernard Williams’s concept of AGENT-REGRET that shows it to be a distinct element of our moral psychology. I will focus specifically on cases of Agent-Regret where the agent, through voluntary action, has caused harms that he could not have reasonably foreseen. I will then present R. Jay Wallace’s recent attempt to show the contrary, i.e., that AGENT-REGRET is not a significant concept for descriptive moral psychology. Finally, I will show that Wallace’s arguments are insufficient to defeat my account of Agent-Regret.

---

Download PDF Article