prof. Stephen Darwall: Attitudes of the Will and Attitudes of the Heart

Invitation pdf

prof. Stephen Darwall (Yale University):
Attitudes of the Will and Attitudes of the Heart

Abstract

The reactive attitudes through which we hold people accountable (resentment, guilt, and blame) have been much studied. But P. F. Strawson gave other examples – love, gratitude, and "hurt feelings." I present an analysis of these attitudes as "second-personal attitudes of the heart."  Whereas the deontic moral attitudes are attitudes of the will – expressing demands from one will to another – second-personal attitudes of the heart open one's heart to another's in the hope that theirs will be open to one's heart in return. In the process we arrive at a perfectly general account of attitudes as "reciprocating attitudes."