ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the moral significance of alternate possibilities. Moral judgments divided into four broad categories: axiological judgments, having to do with good and evil; aretaic judgments, having to do with virtue and vice; hypological judgments, having to do with responsibility; and deontic judgments, having to do with right and wrong. The great bulk of contemporary discussion of the moral significance of alternate possibilities has had to do with their relevance to hypological judgments. There are two main ways in which alternate possibilities could be relevant to moral judgments. It might be claimed that someone’s having alternate possibilities is sufficient for the truth of some moral judgment about that person, such as the judgment that he or she is virtuous, or the judgment that he is morally responsible for his behavior. If this were so, then the moral significance of alternate possibilities would be obvious.
