Blame and redemption

What happens when a person redeems herself? According to interminability theorists, a redeemed person remains blameworthy but may cease to be an all-things-considered appropriate target of blame. According to many terminability theorists, however, a redeemed person ceases to be blameworthy. While terminability theorists often agree that redemption is sufficient for a person to cease being blameworthy, they disagree about what aspect of redemption undermines a person’s blameworthiness for her earlier wrongs. I do three things in this paper. First, I argue that the interminability theorist’s response is untenable. Second, I argue that extent terminability accounts are untenable. Third, I propose a new terminability account, The Redemption Account, which aims to capture the insights from extant terminability accounts.