On Page 151, Scanlon states that if we believe that praise is the expression of positive appraisal, then it is not the positive correlate to blame, as he has been defining it in this chapter.
I however do not think that, given Scanlon's definition of blame, that praise can be so easily dismissed as the correlate. If blame can be conceptualized as an expression of a re-evaluation of one's relationship (even, supposedly, a moral relationship of one from afar) then I see no clear reason why praise cannot be the same, and I think Scanlon is too quick to dismiss it.
As understood commonly... if I state to a friend that he make snide remarks about me behind my back, and that was wrong, I am essentially blaming him for those snide remarks. He did it, and it was a wrong thing. The blame falls on him. If I told a friend that I saw her going out of her way to help a stranger, that is good! I am essentially praising her.
I think that these opposites work perfectly well even under Scanlon's understanding of blame. If I blame my friend for making crude remarks about me, what I am really doing is re-evaluating, in a negative way, the nature of our relationship. However, if I gain additional respect for my friend as a result of her good deed, isn't our relationship also, in some way, altered?
This may work in moral praise and blame from afar. Genghis Khan is blameable for many deaths. I may not have a personal relationship with Genghis Khan which I can evaluate, but according to Scanlon, my relationship is that of a moral community. Khan's brutality towards other humans hurts my moral sensibilities. Again, why is praise different in this regard? Martin Luthur King Jr. did great things for society and human justice, and that affects the moral community in a positive way.
So unless I misunderstood Scanlon, I am not so sure he should dismiss Praise as the opposite correlate to blame to swiftly.
I think that what Scanlon is trying to suggest is that blame and blameworthy are two different concepts. You’re suggesting that blame and praise are correlates – however I feel that you are misplacing the terminology in Scanlon’s theory.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have come to understand – I think that Scanlon doesn’t entirely rid himself of the idea of praise. I think that he instills the concept of praise in its more general term of praiseworthiness. With its counterpart, blameworthiness, you could still have the comparison that you value so highly. Praiseworthiness and blameworthiness are types of things that a third party could see. It is an action made by a person and interpreted by neither the agent nor the receiver, but rather by an entirely different entity.
What may be confusing is how blame differs from blameworthiness. Blame would be considered rather a personal experience – something that is felt by the individual. This differs based on the individual feeling and the third party evaluation of the character or some social punishment.
So thus blame would coincide with gratitude. Gratitude, therefore, would be a similarly defined concept – one based on feeling and personal experience.
I’m in a similar line of thinking as Franqui. Praise and blame describe different categories of action, rather than being two ends of a spectrum. They’re on different wavelengths, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteThe best place to start is our language. Blame implies a certain responsibility for an act of wrongdoing. It is directed at an agent, but always in direct connection to an action. You cannot blame someone without having some act to blame her for. Praise, on the other hand, is directed at somebody’s character. We can praise people for certain actions, but not necessarily so. When you praise somebody for a good deed, the statement being made is that the deed reflects well on that person’s character. The connection to the act is indirect. Indeed, you can heap praise upon somebody in connection to no act at all.
The positive corollary to blame is more likely to be something like gratitude. Gratitude, like blame, is directed at an agent, but necessarily in connection to some action. You cannot have gratitude towards someone without there being some action for which you are thankful that person performed. Similarly, the negative corollary to praise is likely to be shame. We can shame people for things, but we don’t have to connect our feelings of shame to any particular act.