Responsibility is a key concept in ethics: The individual's responsibility is emphasized. Contrary to that, one often points to the limits of a person's responsibility, e.g. for a stock market crash, for greenhouse gas emissions, for injust social conditions. What belongs to to our responsibility as individuals and what to our collective responsibility? And do robots have responsibilities?
Learning objective
1. Certain concepts should be clarified: e.g., the very meaning of "being responsible for one's actions and its consequences". To what extent are we responsible for the social conditions we find ourselves in?
2. One theoretical position in the philosophy of sociality holds that only individual persons (and not firms, institutions, or states) can be responsible for action and social conditions. Students should be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this thesis (methodological individualism).
3. What does responsibility mean in special social spheres like the economy and the sciences? What does a citizen's collective and personal responsibility consist in?
Performance assessment
Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
Performance assessment as a semester course