Responsibility, Ethics, Life

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The notion of responsibility is a core moral category and cuts across a wide range of practical moral problems. This course will investigate the nature of responsibility in ethics, with attention to its historical meaning in philosophy and theology and the major role it plays in a few key modern figures like Kant, particularly the idea of moral agency and imputation. Relatedly we will explore the role of responsibility in modern theological ethics (Schweiker, Jonas, etc.) and the connections to technology. Then we will explore responsibility in a few key moral areas, including: a) the notion of "professional responsibility" in the professions, b) the notion of "corporate responsibility," c) "responsibility to protect" in human rights and international affairs, d) responsibility for others in the idea of global solidarity, e) responsibility for the environment/climate, and f) responsibility toward integrity in craft and work. Attention will be paid to cross-cultural conceptualizations of responsibility.