13 ms·

What exactly does it mean, for you, to say that a person is responsible for a thing? To me it means things like: you can reasonably be blamed if it's bad and p

by gjm11 5y ago

What exactly does it mean, for you, to say that a person is responsible for a thing? To me it means things like: you can reasonably be blamed if it's bad and praised if it's good; you have/had the ability to influence it a lot; someone wanting it changed would be well advised to go to you for help; it's the way you wanted things to be, or at least a predictable consequence of the way you wanted things to be. If something happens to me by chance then by definition I didn't have the power to make it different, there's no point praising or blaming me for it; it has nothing to do with what I wanted. (There are intermediate cases. Suppose I deliberately created a situation where a particular thing was more likely to happen, and it happened. Even if the processes leading to the thing happening were random, I could still be somewhat responsible for it. That's why there are laws around things like recklessness and negligence.) If you reckon that everything that happens to you is your responsibility, it sounds as if you mean something very different by "responsible". But what?

nyhc99 5y ago
another way that word is commonly used is to indicate the person who has a responsibility; the one who is tasked with handling a situation. ie "who is responsible for cleaning up this mess?" I take it that's what was meant by the notion that you're responsible for everything that happens to you. In this case it has nothing to do with praise or blame. Rather, it means that whether something happened to you by chance or through your own fault, the onus to clean up the mess falls upon you.
- gjm11 5y ago
  Hmm, maybe. The way I'd say it is that dealing with whatever happens to you is generally your responsibility, not that the things that happen themselves are. ("Generally", not literally always. Extreme example: If you get hit by a car and your injuries put you in a coma, then both fixing the injuries and taking action against the driver if appropriate are necessarily other people's job.)

by gjm11 5y ago

nyhc99 5y ago

another way that word is commonly used is to indicate the person who has a responsibility; the one who is tasked with handling a situation. ie "who is responsible for cleaning up this mess?" I take it that's what was meant by the notion that you're responsible for everything that happens to you. In this case it has nothing to do with praise or blame. Rather, it means that whether something happened to you by chance or through your own fault, the onus to clean up the mess falls upon you.

gjm11 5y ago
Hmm, maybe. The way I'd say it is that dealing with whatever happens to you is generally your responsibility, not that the things that happen themselves are. ("Generally", not literally always. Extreme example: If you get hit by a car and your injuries put you in a coma, then both fixing the injuries and taking action against the driver if appropriate are necessarily other people's job.)