In Praise Of Blame

"Blame is as common as water and as transparent to the gaze. We all know what it is but we cannot explain what we know by describing the experience. Often, there is no experience to describe. We also cannot explain what we know by specifying blame's purpose, since genuine blame is always impotent because always after the fact. Given its ubiquity, its elusiveness, and its evident moral importance, we might expect philosophers to have scrutinized blame carefully. But strikingly, they have not....My aim here is to remedy the neglect of philosophers while showing the antagonism of the therapeutically oriented to be misplaced. Blame, I will argue, should be neither ignored nor deplored." Book jacket.

George Sher is Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Philosophy at Rice University.