The responsibility for the unavoidable consequences of acts and omissions

Abstract

I argue that one can be responsible for a certain state of affairs, one has brought about, or one has let happen, only if one could have avoided it, by omitting or by performing a certain action. I limit my argument to the consequences of actions and omissions (vs actions and omissions themselves), and to the conditional ability of avoiding the consequences by an alternative behaviour (vs the absolute ability to behave otherwise). Even within those limits, the argument challenges the Causal Conception of Moral Responsibility and the strategy mounted by Frankfurt against the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. It is a step in favor of the idea that the ability to do otherwise (free will) is a necessary condition for moral responsibility.