Tracing Moral Responsibility in the Process of Self-Deception

In order to attribute moral responsibility to an agent for a particular action, several conditions must be present. These conditions include knowledge, awareness, intention, ability, and ultimately, the presence of free will. Nevertheless, there are instances where even if an agent initially appears to lack certain conditions, we still attribute responsibility to them for the resulting action. This is because we can trace the conditions of moral responsibility back in time to verify their fulfillment in the past. By employing an analytical approach, This article aims to explore moral responsibility in the context of different forms of moral self-deception. I contend that in cases of moral self-deception, when an agent deliberately chooses to ignore their prior inclinations and allows their motivational bias to influence their desired beliefs, the element of intention can be discerned in their self-deceptive actions. As a result, the agent can be held morally responsible.