Praise & Blame

The concepts of praise and blame are closely associated to the concepts of desert, punishment, and moral responsibility.

When a person (or group of people) perform (or fail to perform) an action, we often respond to their action by assigning praise or blame, that is, we respond by holding them accountable or responsible for their actions.

On a basic level, when we judge a person’s actions to be blameworthy, we judge them to be morally responsible for wrongdoing.  Conversely, when we judge someone to do something right, we judge their action to be praiseworthy.

There are, of course, several notable exceptions to this general rule.  Aristotle, for example, argued that actions can only be blameworthy or praiseworthy in so far as they are voluntary actions, and voluntary actions can be limited by such things as force of circumstances, coercion, and ignorance (not all instances of ignorance justify the excusing of blame, however).

Thus, we may withhold blame, for example, when we learn that an individual’s action was the result of coercion and not the result of the person’s own free choosing.  We may similarly refrain from bestowing praise on an individual when his or her seemingly praiseworthy action was merely the result of force of circumstances.

Modern normative theories – Kantian deontology and utilitarianism– give considerable attention to the justification of the use of praise and blame.

Utilitarians justify praise and blame by appealing to their social value.  On their view, praise and blame are justified because they encourage people to perform good actions and discourage people from performing bad actions – thus bringing about greater good.

Kantians hold praise and blame to be justified because both responses recognize an individual’s rational agency.  We are justified in blaming or praising an individual because that individual chose his or her action freely.   Having chosen freely, the individual deserves praise or blame for his or her action.  This justification is closely connected to the concept of desert and, in the case of blame, is also sometimes associated with punishment.