JoJo Thought Experiment: Ethics, Upbringing & Responsibility

3 minutes read

The JoJo thought experiment is a paradigmatic case in moral philosophy that examines how deeply upbringing can shape one’s values and whether moral responsibility can be fairly attributed to someone raised in an environment saturated with immoral norms. In this scenario, Jo the First is a tyrannical dictator whose cruelty is not only tolerated but celebrated within his realm. His son, JoJo, grows up isolated within this system and comes to inherit not just his father’s position but also his mode of governance. The central ethical question is this: if JoJo’s moral framework is entirely shaped by his upbringing, to what extent can he be held responsible for actions that, while clearly harmful to others, are consistent with the only moral framework he has ever known?

Classical views of moral responsibility often require both agency and moral competence—the ability to recognize and respond to moral reasons distinct from one’s conditioned preferences. Susan Wolf introduced JoJo’s case to challenge simplistic accounts of responsibility that focus solely on the expression of one’s “deep self” or internalized values. Wolf argues that if an agent lacks the capacity to appreciate the wrongness of an action due to moral ignorance brought about by upbringing, it may be unfair to treat that agent as fully morally responsible. This view contrasts with other philosophical positions (e.g., deep-self views and compatibility theories) that suggest individuals can be responsible even when their values stem from formative influences, so long as they act on those values with reflective endorsement.

The experiment, therefore, opens broader questions about how moral agency, personal history, and normative competence interact:

• Is responsibility mitigated if a person never had access to alternative moral frameworks?
• Does the mere consistency of choices with one’s internal values suffice for full moral blame?
• Can societal or structural factors ever ground excusing conditions that reduce moral culpability?

In the accompanying video, philosophers Michael Vazquez and Sarah Stroud present JoJo’s story and invite viewers to consider these questions within the context of real-world analogues where upbringing and social environments profoundly influence moral development. Produced in collaboration with the Parr Center for Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the lesson connects abstract ethical theory to implications for judgment, punishment, and societal responses to wrongdoing.

Watch the video