Commentator: Alfred Archer (Tilburg)

Title: Payback Time: Essays on Attitudes, Partiality, and Rescuing.

Abstract: It is widely held by philosophers that someone’s behaving in a supererogatory or impermissible manner can change how we are morally permitted or required to treat them. It can, for instance, permit or require certain positive or negative attitudinal responses from others, such as gratitude or resentment. It is also widely accepted that someone’s impermissible behaviour can justify harming them, either defensively or punitively, and that someone who is imperilled as a result of impermissible behaviour might have a weaker claim to be aided than those who are innocently imperilled. This thesis has two aims. The first is to extend the scope of the idea that we can be morally required to have certain positive or negative attitudinal responses to someone’s supererogatory (or even obligatory) or impermissible behaviour; the second is to explore novel ways in which our required responses to such behaviour, or our failures to have these responses, can change what others owe to us when aiding.