chapter 1

• responsibility: being held accountable for your actions and for the effects of your actions
• role responsibility: the responsibility that is based on the role one has or plays in a certain situation
• moral responsibility: responsibility that is based on moral obligations, moral norms or moral duties
• professional responsibility: the responsibility that is based on one’s role as a professional as far it stays within the limits of what is morally allowed

passive responsibility

backward-looking responsibility, relevant after something undesirable occurred. specific forms:

• accountability: backward-looking responsibility in the sense of being held to account for, or justify one’s actions towards others
• blameworthiness: backward-looking responsibility in the sense of being a proper target of blame for one’s actions or the consequences of one’s actions. in order to be blameworthy, usually the following conditions need to apply:
  • wrong-doing: when we blame someone we usually argue that in carrying out a certain action they violated a norm or did something wrong
  • causal contribution: the person to be held responsible must have made a causal contribution to the consequences for which they are held responsible.
    • not only an action, a failure to act may also be considered as a causal contribution
    • a causal contribution is usually not sufficient condition for the occurrence of the consequence. the causal contribution is necessary, but not always sufficient.
  • foreseeability: a person that is responsible for something must have been able to know the consequences of their actions
  • freedom of action: the one who is held responsible must have had freedom of actions, they must not have acted under compulsion.
• liability

active responsibility

responsibility before something has happened referring to a duty or task to care for certain state-of-affairs or persons. features according to mark bovens:

• adequate perception of threatened violations of norms
• consideration of the consequences
• autonomy (to make independent moral decisions)
• displaying conduct that is based on a verifiable and consistent code
• taking role obligations seriously