Blaming Yourself for Wronging Yourself

Abstract It is commonplace to say we have moral duties to others. It is increasingly so (at least among moral philosophers) to say we have moral duties to ourselves. If we have such duties, then we can violate them: we can wrong ourselves. Call this the self-wronging hypothesis. The paper investigates the implications of the self-wronging hypothesis for self-blame. It is appropriate to blame others when they wrong us. Is it likewise appropriate to blame ourselves when we wrong ourselves? The paper assesses whether the self-wronging hypothesis underwrites self-blame (it does), and whether self-blame is noxious (it need not be).