Reconsidering the Formalisation of Backward Looking Responsibility

Abstract

We consider the problem of formally defining backward looking responsibility for outcomes in a non-deterministic world. To the classical achievement stit analysis we add that agents can intervene in ongoing courses of events that are heading towards a certain outcome. The two main modes of responsibility we formally characterise are: (1) being the agent who initiated a course of events that led to an outcome, (2) being an agent that had the opportunity to intervene in a course of events that led to an outcome, but refrained from doing so. We point to further causal (but-for) modes, but leave their formal definitions to a future article. Surprisingly, the fundamental categories of causal responsibility we define, have not been characterised before in the literature.