Does ought imply can?

Abstract

Most philosophers believe that a person can have an obligation only insofar as she is able to fulfil it, a principle generally referred to as “Ought Implies Can”. Arguably, this principle reflects something basic about the ordinary concept of obligation. However, in a paper published recently in this journal, Wesley Buckwalter and John Turri presented evidence for the conclusion that ordinary people in fact reject that principle. With a series of studies, they claimed to have demonstrated that, in people’s judgements, obligations persist irrespective of whether those who hold them have the ability to fulfil them. We argue in this paper that due to some problems in their design, Buckwalter & Turri’s conclusions may not be warranted. We present the results of a series of studies demonstrating the problems with their design and showing that, with an improved design, people judge that obligation depends on ability after all.

Recent experimental work on “ought” implies “can”

“…The results of some of the scenarios show that when the original ordering was reversed, fewer participants chose the inability‐obligation response (Leben, ). These findings are consistent with those of Kurthy, Lawford‐Smith, and Sousa (), who similarly altered Buckwalter and Turri's () designs by changing the wording of the response options and found that people made fewer OIC violations.…”

Recent Experimental Work on ‘Ought’ Implies ‘Can’

“…The results of some of the scenarios show that when the original ordering was reversed, fewer participants chose the inability-obligation response (Leben, 2018). These findings are consistent with those of Kurthy et al (2017), who similarly altered Buckwalter and Turri's (2015) designs by changing the wording of the response options and found that people made fewer OIC violations.…”

Ability, Responsibility, and Global Justice

“…Subsequent studies on the connection between moral judgment and ability also demonstrate contexts in which ability is related to obligation ascriptions. In one study, for example, a team of researchers presented participants with cover stories modeled after prior materials developed by Buckwalter & Turri 2015 involving a protagonist who is unable to fulfill a promise due to a car accident (Kurthy, Lawford-Smith, and Sousa 2017: Experiment 1). The researchers replicated the previous finding that a large majority of participants indicate that the protagonist was "obligated but unable" to act.…”