Subject:
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Re: personal responsibility (was:Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 26 May 2000 18:14:36 GMT
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Viewed:
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1020 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> Also, the whole scenario gets messed up with inscrutable
> minutiae almost from the get-go: If I take an elevator to the ground level,
> step to the curb outside, and am struck by an out-of-control car (or falling
> piano, or whatever), am I more at fault than if I'd taken a different elevator
> and reached the curb a few seconds after the accident?
>
> No. Of course not. You are equally (that is to say fully?) responsible in
> each instance. In neither case is your death or survival exactly your fault,
> but in both cases it was your responsibility to assure your safety. And it
> was the piano movers' responsibility not to drop the piano too, this is a
> perfect illustration for why you must be responsible for yourself...no one
> else will be.
Part of this was my error in blurring the relationship between "fault" and
"responsibility." My feeling, though, is still that while we are primarily
responsible for ourselves, we are also societally responsible for others. I
don't think this can--or, ideally, should--be legislated, but in my it is
fundamental to "community."
> > Where is a line to be drawn regarding one's "choices" in a situation?
>
> What line is that?
Oops--unintentional ambiguity! I meant, where is the line to be drawn
between what *is* one's responsibility for oneself and what *is not* one's
responsibility, insofar as it pertains to random or uncontrollable
circumstances affecting an individual. How is such a distinction to be made,
in other words?
> I still think that people are responsible for their circumstances.
> "Responsible for" and "the cause of" do not equate and are not
> interchangeable.
Just to clear any potential confusion, can you offer a working definition of
these two ideas? I can think of many examples in which they can be used
interchangeably.
Dave!
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