Preface

The necessity to revisit the problem of responsibility was primarily prompted by the challenges of our contemporary world – COVID-19, wars, ecological crises, and more. Some of these challenges highlight oversight, inaction, or misunderstanding, while others signal a transformed and ever-changing world. Consequently, the return to the problem of responsibility required us to tackle a dual task: to consider the genesis and development of the concept of responsibility in the Western philosophical tradition, and to reflect on new methodological approaches. We observe a process wherein the traditional notion of responsibility, based on an autonomous individual accountable for the consequences of their actions, is being replaced by an awareness of social, technological, and ecological interconnections. This shift leads to collective action, reparations, and assistance to those who are suffering. Such collective action implies not only the responsibility of the living but also intergenerational responsibility – a relationship with both past and future generations (cf. Hans Jonas’s The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age [1979] and Tiziana Andina’s A Philosophy for Future Generations: The Structure and Dynamics of Transgenerationality [2022]). However, this expanded field of responsibility does not necessarily mean assuming guilt or accountability, as the connection between an individual’s specific decisions and this globally expanded field becomes unclear and difficult to grasp (cf. Timothy Clark’s The Value of Ecocriticism [2019] and Jacques Derrida’s The Gift of Death [1992]). As a result, increasing weight is given to institutions, and in many areas of societal life, a form of insurance-based responsibility emerges. While this may potentially serve as a foundation for solidarity, the essence of this responsibility often remains vague, as the role of the accountable subject is supplanted by a network of participants obligated by systemic structures. In attempting to understand this complex process, this issue of Athena: Philosophical Studies seeks to address the problem of responsibility at the intersection of ethics, law, and politics.