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Glossary 1 min read

Negative Responsibility

Negative responsibility is the idea, most forcefully articulated by Bernard Williams, that we are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we fail to prevent. In the context of the Survival Lottery, negative responsibility implies that if we refuse to kill one person to save t

By Philosopheasy Published on June 19, 2026

A key concept in the critique of utilitarianism, closely tied to the Survival Lottery. 4 min read.

Negative responsibility is a term coined by Bernard Williams in his 1973 essay "A Critique of Utilitarianism." It refers to the idea that an agent is responsible for the consequences of their inaction as well as their actions. In traditional moral frameworks, we are primarily responsible for what we actively do. If I push someone off a bridge, I am responsible for their death. But if I fail to push someone off a bridge to save five others, I am not typically held responsible for the deaths of the five.

Utilitarianism, however, rejects this asymmetry. If the consequences are the same, the moral assessment should be the same. If I could save five by pushing one, and I do not push, I am responsible for the five deaths. This is negative responsibility: responsibility for what one fails to prevent.

The Survival Lottery is a vivid illustration of negative responsibility. If we reject the lottery, we are allowing A and B to die. According to negative responsibility, we are therefore responsible for their deaths. The thought experiment forces us to confront the demandingness of this view. If we accept negative responsibility, we seem committed to a world where we are constantly guilty of failing to save others. If we reject it, we need a principled way to distinguish acts from omissions.

Williams argued that negative responsibility undermines personal integrity by alienating us from our own projects and commitments. The Survival Lottery shows why this matters: the lottery demands that we treat our own moral scruples as mere preferences to be traded off against the preferences of others.

Referenced Works & Texts

  1. Bernard Williams, "A Critique of Utilitarianism," in Utilitarianism: For and Against (1973). The original articulation of the negative responsibility objection.
  2. John Harris, "The Survival Lottery," Philosophy, Vol. 50, No. 191 (1975). The thought experiment that illustrates the implications of negative responsibility.

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