ABSTRACT
Rosa is a magical agent: she was “born” an instant ago, and with the exception of her unconventional entrance into life, she enjoys the full complement
of features that autonomous or morally responsible agency demands. She hears about the plight of the children in Niger; whipping out her “magical wallet,” choke full of large denomination bills, she makes a bountiful donation to a well-reputed, pertinent charity. Is she morally praiseworthy for this deed? Externalists about responsibility may be prone to say that owing to her lacking a past, and owing to responsibility’s being an essentially historical phenomenon, she is not deserving of praise. Internalists who believe that the past plays no such heavy hand in ascriptions of responsibility will be inclined to judge otherwise.
