Abstract:
What does it mean to be a responsible agent in an age when both the subject and the object of responsibility are in question? This volume explores how the concept of responsibility is evolving today. Traditionally understood as the answerability of a self-determining subject for their intentional acts, responsibility now faces a profound transformation: psychoanalysis, collective agency, global interdependence, the environmental crisis, and artificial intelligence – all challenge the idea of a transparent, self-knowing individual who acts freely and knowingly as well as the notion of a clear and delimited object of responsibility. As the effects of human agency extend across generations – from climate change to technological creation – responsibility can no longer remain merely retrospective or individual. Bringing together diverse philosophical perspectives, this collection reconsiders responsibility as an open and dynamic practice: one that transcends guilt and legality, and instead takes root in the continuous human task of answering – ethically, politically, and existentially – for our actions, our institutions, and the world we are shaping.
