A Delightful Development

I've been so confused about how to develop a concept of historical morality.

But all of this thinking about responsibility and stuff has got it all going like crazy.

I've got this excellent new outline, and I'm really excited about it.

The problem is this.

Modern conceptions of freedom and responsibility typically rely on ideas like thought, will, reason, or consciousness.

Recent psychological research, however, is revealing how limited our self-knowledge is, and how out of control our feelings, thoughts, and actions are. We live far more intuitive lives than we think.

How are we to be responsible, then? If responsibility cannot be identified with consciousness, reason, or will, then what is it to be identified with?

My answer: it is to be identified with history. It is to be defined as a method of telling a story in which you are an agent, responsible for your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

This conclusion, as I noted in an earlier post, seems unavoidable if we ask ourselves, How is it that responsibility can be assumed well after an event? Days, even weeks or years can pass and we still have the option of claiming responsibility for something.

How can this be?

How, in short, to account for the retroactivity of responsibility?

I believe I can resolve this problem by arguing that responsibility is about being a special type of a historian. Specifically, a historian of your own actions. One that fully identifies with feelings, thoughts, and actions. One that sees past actions as expressions of our duty.


I believe that by approaching the issue of responsibility in this way I am making a great stride in my quest to develop a concept of historical morality.