Bounds of Responsibility

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2014. This volume examines our fundamental obligations as humans. The chapters offer innovative models and philosophies for responsible living, covering the areas of consumption, bioethics, community inclusion, disability, the EU debt crisis, and the body. Each, nevertheless, grapples with the central question of what we owe others, whether on the personal, societal, industrial, governmental or international level, and the problem of how far these responsibilities are realized and extended. This book's title, The Bounds of Responsibility, is therefore meant to suggest both how responsibilities should in some cases be limited, and can often be limiting. For while we cannot take full responsibility for all those we encounter, we can neither break away from the obligations that define humans. In analysing responsibility's limits, the authors formulate conclusions of differing degrees, but agree on the imperative to integrate some substantial philosophy of responsible living into social and economic structures for the common good.