The aim of the project is to develop a general theory of retrospective responsibility with several components.
1. The theory of retrospective responsibility is embedded in a comprehensive theory of the social control of individuals’ actions. One task of the research project is to outline this comprehensive system, then to determine more precisely the function of the system of responsibility criteria and attribution of responsibility in order to gain specifications for the individual conditions for retrospective responsibility and to justify the entire conception of attribution of responsibility.
2. The next task is the precise determination of the conditions of retrospective responsibility in its various forms and their justification within the framework of the functional role of responsibility.
3. The practice of attributing responsibility in the context of action control through punishments and rewards is based on some critical presuppositions that are particularly controversial in philosophical debates and will be discussed in a further part of the project:
(i) auctoritas and genuine imputability despite the absence of ultimate control;
(ii) possible guiltless “guilt” and unjust punishments due to the determinacy of choices;
(iii) minimal freedom of choice as a precondition of responsibility.

Disclaimer: This project has been funded under contract CUP B53D23033960006 – Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1 Fondo per il Programma Nazionale di Ricerca e Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) finanziato dall’Unione Europea “Next Generation EU”, 2022