Abstract: What is the role of respect in enabling blame to be effective in changing the blamed's attitude and behavior? I argue that the interest in having another person's respect plays an important role in enabling blame to be effective. More specifically, I develop an account of blame’s operations in three different cases (standard, intermediate, and proleptic blame), and raise a normative worry: when blame achieves its desired effect in cases where the blamer and blamed are far apart in their moral understanding and motivations, blame begins to approximate manipulation and coercion, leaving a moral residue.

Bio: George Tsai is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. His research interests are in moral and political philosophy. More specifically, his work focuses on the moral complexity of relationships and transactions in our personal and political lives. He has published articles in leading venues including Philosophy and Public Affairs, Journal of Political Philosophy, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Social Theory and Practice, and Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility.