Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

The reasonable person standard is of great importance to US criminal and tort law. According to the law, whether or not an agent acted reasonably does not depend on features of the outcome which are not under her control. Mock juror attributions of reasonableness, however, are shown to be outcome-dependent. A series of experiments reveals that this outcome-dependence does not constitute a bias, since the very folk concept of reasonableness is outcome-sensitive. Consequently, the law makes a mistaken assumption as to what kind of concept of reasonableness lay jurors will apply in court. This conceptual misalignment, it is argued, could lead to serious injustice in US trials.


NB: this is a pre-read session. Dr. Markus Kneer will briefly introduce the paper (10-15 min presentation) before discussion starts. Copies of the paper will be circulated in advance, and can also be obtained by sending an email to nerimarsili@ub.edu.