There is an interesting ‘gestalt switch’ in Strawson’s picture. At first, it might seem that the moral attitudes associated with blame are hard and harsh, and we might think that it is an improvement if we can get past them to more liberal and understanding attitudes to such things as crime or ‘deviant behaviour’. Treating people as patients rather than as criminals looks to be a step in a humane, decent direction. Strawson asks us to confront what is lost in this change. He suggests that a lot of what makes human relationships distinctively human is lost. Suppose, for instance, that I have
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