Talk:Moral agency

Misc. Errors

The sentence, "In Kant's philosophy, this calls for an act of faith, the faith free agent is based on something a priori, yet to be known, or immaterial", seems to have an error. Is the sentence saying that we need to have faith in order to accept the following statement? Or is it saying that our free agency requires an act of faith? Something seems grammatically wrong with this sentence - I don't know what the verb is in this sentence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.55.245.99 (talk) 08:07, 16 July 2022 (UTC)

Section on nonhuman animal moral agency

It would be good to include a section on this topic; here's a few sources:

• Are some animals also moral agents?
• Can Animals Be Moral?
• Are Animals Moral?: Zhu Xi and Jeong Yakyong’s Views on Nonhuman Animals
• Animals and Moral Agency: The Recent Debate and Its Implications
• Animal Morality: What It Means and Why It Matters
• A Practice-Focused Case for Animal Moral Agency Throughthemind (talk) 09:55, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

I've added a section, including these sources - thanks! Wreer806 (talk) 19:39, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Article introduction

I think the first sentence needs adjusting. It currently reads 'Moral agency is an individual's ability to make moral judgments based on some notion of right and wrong and to be held accountable for these actions'.

1: It conflates moral judgment and agency. They are related, but not the same. Importantly, this article discusses or links to cases in which an entity could be a moral agent while being incapable of moral judgment.

2: The cited source does not support the claim in the sentence. Taylor's actual text assigns moral agency to those who can make moral choices, not judgments. I don't think it's an especially good definition anyway, but I think it more accurate than the one here.

3: Some very important accounts of morality do not treat 'right' and 'wrong' as central concepts.

4: The ability to be held accountable is not ideal phrasing - it means 'morally responsible', but not all those who are morally responsible can be held accountable.

I will make a fairly minimal edit - 'judgments' to 'choices' - to ensure that it at least accurately represents the cited source. I'll hold off on a larger change for a bit as it is obviously an important section and I'm new to editing etiquette. I do think it needs a more substantial rewording though and am happy do do it myself at some point. Potentially useful references: Routledge on Moral Agents, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Agency.

Wreer806 (talk) 20:00, 1 May 2022 (UTC)