An Introduction to Moral Philosophy 51command, crashes the plane, and the rider dies, the pilot is not
fully responsible for the death, but is responsible for the crash
which caused the death.
The less knowledge, the less responsibility. But always re
member that the less effort exerted to overcome ignorance, the
more responsibility— while the more effort exerted, the less
responsibility.
There is another category called “affected ignorance,” which
can either lessen (only in the sense that all ignorance affects
knowledge), or usually, increase responsibility. If one purposely
remains ignorant in order to have an excuse if his actions turn out
wrong, he can actually increase responsibility because, in fact,
he has willed to be ignorant. If a person who is offered a Rolex
watch for fifty dollars is asked by the seller, “Don’t you want to
know how I can sell this so cheaply?” and replies, “No, I don’t
want to know anything about it,” the buyer is using ignorance to
facilitate the act. The bartender who doesn’t want to see an ID,
for fear of what he will learn by seeing it, is responsible for
serving the teenager. The bartender who doesn’t ask for an ID
because a person truly seems to be of age is less responsible.
Succinctly, then, invincible ignorance destroys responsibility;
if there was no way to know, lack of knowledge absolves the actor
of responsibility. Vincible ignorance lessens responsibility; there
was a way to know, and to the extent the actor tried to know, his
responsibility is lessened. Affected ignorance in no way lessens
responsibility; the actor purposely chose to be ignorant in order
to have a ready excuse for an act he was about to commit.
Affected ignorance can actually increase responsibility.
Passion is that strong emotion which engulfs us; anger, pity,
disgust, lust, grief, joy, all affect us, often in a spontaneous way,
due to circumstances. If these feelings overwhelm us in a spon
taneous incident, it is called “antecedent passion,” and it lessens
responsibility. If, however, these feelings are fostered, nurtured,
even conjured up by ourselves for our own purposes, it is called
“consequent passion,” and it can increase responsibility.
Antecedent passion can destroy responsibility. If a person is
totally overcome by an emotion and performs an act over which
he has no control, responsibility is destroyed. This is probably
a rare occurrence, but it is possible to be so spontaneously
overcome as to be rendered incapable of voluntary action. If a