Document Type
Contribution to Book
Language
eng
Format of Original
23 p.
Publication Date
2014
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Source Publication
Vulnerability: New Essays in Ethics and Feminist Philosophy
Source ISSN
9780199316649
Original Item ID
doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199316649.003.0005
Abstract
This essay seeks to understand the domain and demands of reparative justice in terms of moral vulnerability. Significant harms raise the question of whether victims stand in truly reciprocal practices of accountability; if they do, they enjoy the power of calling others to account as well as bearing the liability of being accountable to others. In the aftermath of harms, victims’ moral vulnerability is tested: they may be exposed to the insult and injury of discovering that they do not enjoy the moral standing of holding others accountable. While the occasion of reparative justice is significant wrongs and wrongful harms and losses, this essay argues that the aim of reparative practices is not only or even primarily to redress those harms and losses, but to address the moral vulnerability of victims by affirming their status in accountability relations.
Recommended Citation
Walker, Margaret Urban, "Moral Vulnerability and the Task of Reparations" (2014). Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications. 425.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/phil_fac/425
Comments
Published version. "Moral Vulnerability and the Task of Reparations," in Vulnerability: New Essays in Ethics and Feminist Philosophy. Eds. Catriona Mackenzie, Wendy Rogers, and Susan Dodds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014: 111-133. DOI. © 2014 Oxford University Press. Used with permission.