What does normative responsibility refer to in ethics?

What does normative responsibility refer to in ethics?

• A. Normative responsibility refers to moral, ethical, or legal responsibility.
• B. Causal responsibility means ignoring consequences.
• C. Casual responsibility concerns everyday conversations.
• D. Outcome responsibility is the only thing that matters.

Answer: (A)

Normative responsibility is about what a person ought to be held accountable for—moral, ethical, or legal accountability. It focuses on rights, duties, and the reasons a person has to act in a certain way, considering their choices, knowledge, and control. In other words, it’s about deserving praise or blame, obligation or exemption for what someone did, rather than just describing what happened. This is different from causal responsibility, which looks at whether a person actually caused an event, and from focusing on outcomes alone, which evaluates results rather than the reasons behind actions. It’s not about everyday conversations or casual talk, and it isn’t that only outcomes matter—normative responsibility weighs what someone ought to do given their intentions and circumstances.

Normative responsibility is about what a person ought to be held accountable for—moral, ethical, or legal accountability. It focuses on rights, duties, and the reasons a person has to act in a certain way, considering their choices, knowledge, and control. In other words, it’s about deserving praise or blame, obligation or exemption for what someone did, rather than just describing what happened.

This is different from causal responsibility, which looks at whether a person actually caused an event, and from focusing on outcomes alone, which evaluates results rather than the reasons behind actions. It’s not about everyday conversations or casual talk, and it isn’t that only outcomes matter—normative responsibility weighs what someone ought to do given their intentions and circumstances.