In a spectacularly short time, the concept of responsibility has risen from obscurity to prominence: Coined as a political concept in the debates surrounding the democratic revolutions in America and France, it was used to rethink the relation between the government and the people or the government and the parliament. These beginnings as well as the subsequent developments – its individualization in ethics (Max Weber), its usage to cope with an unbearable past after World War II (Karl Jasper), its connection to sustainability (Hans Jonas) and its newest offspring in international relations, the “responsibility to protect” – are the core themes of this seminar.
Preparatory Reading
Bayertz, Kurt (1995): Eine kurze Geschichte der Herkunft der Verantwortung. In: Kurt Bayertz (Hrsg.), Verantwortung. Prinzip oder Problem? Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 3–71.
Heidbrink, Ludger und Alfred Hirsch (Hrsg.) (2007): Staat ohne Verantwortung? Zum Wandel der Aufgaben von Staat und Politik. Frankfurt a. M./New York: Campus.
McKeon, Richard (1957): The Development and the Significance of the Concept of Responsibility. In: Revue Internationale de Philosophie 39 (1), 3–32.
Weber, Max (1988 [1919]): Politik als Beruf. In: ders.: Gesammelte politische Schriften. Hrsg. Von Johannes Winckelmann. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 505–560.