It has been almost fifty years since J. L. Austin made his famous plea for excuses before an audience of the Aristotelian Society. Austin's plea was not that we recognize the possibility of having an excuse for wrongful behavior; he took this possibility for granted. His plea was that we recognize how fruitful a careful study of excuses, or rather of the language of excuses, can be when one is investigating the nature of action and of responsibility. By way of demonstration of this fact, his essay meanders thoughtfully through the terrain of accident, carelessness, impulsiveness, inadvertence, negligence, recklessness, and the like, tarrying intermittently at neglected sites and revealing unsuspected nuances.
