ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the moral rhetoric of blaming in light of a salient view that stresses the bad character of the wrongdoer. It reviews the semantics of the term character that support blaming generally. The chapter discusses some of those deep problems, which often show up as reflections of the social and cultural biases that one bring to the process of attributing blame. It addresses the role of blaming within the paradox of evil, which, in its most unintelligible forms, suggests that poor environmental conditions do in fact effect changes within an individual's cognitive and volitional control. The chapter begins with an examination of the views of Judith Jarvis Thomson, a prominent moral philosopher, and turns to the work of several contemporary jurisprudence scholars who advance character-based theories of punishment and excuse. It briefly explains attribution theory (AT) and describes the biases that inhere in the process, i.e., fundamental attribution error (FAE).
