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Essay / Williams's Arguments on the Concept of Agent Regret Agent regret correlates with guilt, even in cases of unintentional behavior. agency. However, agent regret can be present even in nonmoral cases; this implies that the agent's regret does not inform an agent's moral outlook on his or her life but is a feeling like any other. For example, in China, there are many cases of individuals being sued for damages after stopping to help victims of accidents or crimes. If I were such a person, I might regret stepping in to help because my actions – while objectively good – led to me being sued. It is unlikely that my view of myself or my moral worth will change as a result of this incident. Additionally, in cases of involuntary action, the moral outlook of the truck driver is also unlikely to change. He may strongly regret crushing the child, but since he is blameless, his internal moral evaluation as a good person is unlikely to change. Only the results of his actions were affected by luck. Agent regret does not seem to be an assessment of morality, but simply an irrational feeling of sadness or frustration at not having gotten what we wanted. In this case, the agent's regret may be subject to luck, but this does not automatically mean that morality is also subject to luck.
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