On Responsibility in Science and Law

Abstract

Respon’sible, liable to be called to account or render satisfaction: answerable: capable of dis-charging duty: able to pay.2 The old Chambers’s dictionary gives a behavioristic view of re-sponsibility: in terms of action, not thought or belief. “Lust in the heart” is not equated to lust in flagrante. It is this view I shall explore in this paper, rather than the more subjective notion of moral responsibility, as in “I feel moral responsibility (i.e., guilt) for not doing anything to save the Tutsis [Hutus, ethnic Albanians, etc.].”...