Jozefien Gielen

In recent years, interest in the function of blame has increased. Several functional accounts have been developed, claiming to give new insight into the nature of our blame practice and sometimes also to vindicate and legitimize it. However, some doubts have been raised with regard to this functional methodology and, especially, its proneness to paint an overly positive picture of our blame practices. This paper attends to that concern by articulating, and arguing for, three requirements for a functional vindication of blame: one on the importance of the function, one on alternatives, and one on the characterization of blame. It thereby aims to make a two-sided contribution. On the one hand, provide a toolbox to avoid or counter overly positive accounts of blame. On the other hand, provide a ‘methodological map’ to develop or strengthen a functional vindication. In the final section, I raise a new concern specifically related to the use of a functional approach for both the characterization and vindication of blame simultaneously.