Subjective vs. Objective Standards of Reasonableness for Self-Defense

What I’ll present comes from a book manuscript having to do with the distinction between subjective and objective standards of reasonableness, particularly in connection with self-defense. I try both to clarify the distinction and to argue that an objective standard properly understood, properly articulated, and properly applied is just fine. However, in the material that I will present at Toronto, I take seriously the position of someone who favors a subjective standard, and who wants to find as viable a subjective standard as possible.

I motivate that position via a case that cannot count as justified self-defense on an objective standard, and which may for that reason lead some to favor a subjective standard. After explaining briefly one obvious alternative — treating the person as partially or fully excused — and then presenting another approach, suggested by Arthur Ripstein, I’ll devote the rest of my talk to trying to figure out how a subjective standard at its best might go, a subjective standard that would facilitate treating this and relevantly similar cases as justified self-defense.

This is not something I am endorsing. I am considering it to draw attention to the challenges for anyone who wants to come up with a plausible subjective standard, and hopefully to advance the debate concerning standards of reasonableness.

Marcia Baron
https://philosophy.indiana.edu/directory/faculty/baron-marcia.html
Professor
Department of Philosophy
Indiana University

About the Speaker:

Marcia Baron's research focuses on moral philosophy, moral psychology, and philosophy of law (more specifically, philosophical issues in criminal law). Topics she has written on include impartiality in ethics, and the apparent conflicts between loyalty, patriotism, friendship and love, and impartiality; manipulativeness; self-defense; the "heat of passion" defense; mens rea issues, including whether negligence should be considered a sufficient mens rea, and more broadly, to what standards of self-control and reasonableness people should be held (for the purposes of criminal law); rape and sexual consent; justifications and excuses; the moral significance of appearances; the value of acting from duty (and just how acting from duty should be understood); and virtue ethics. She is interested in the history of ethics, and has written extensively on Kant's ethics and less extensively on Hume's; she also has an interest in liberalism and political philosophy more generally. She is currently working on a book on self-defense and the reasonable belief requirement.

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This is a talk with audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics that is free to attend and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided at the event. Sometimes we look for each other after the talk for further discussion about the topic. Unfortunately this event will not be streamed online as usual.

About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca):

The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life.

In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society.

The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai