Collective Responsibility and Punishment

The philosophical debate surrounding the legitimate attribution of moral responsibility is premised on the notion that individual humans generally possess certain metaphysical characteristics by virtue of which they qualify as moral agents, and moral responsibility can thus be legitimately attributed to them. Collective responsibility is in contrast to individual responsibility. The debate concerning collective moral responsibility is couched in terms of whether a group of individuals can collectively possess the relevant characteristics of moral agency to be legitimately bearers of collective moral responsibility. In this entry, the focus is on the debate concerning collective moral responsibility. The focus is not on any legal significance of the term because Western legal systems primarily regard individual humans as the proper subjects before the law.

It is generally accepted ...