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Responsibility

Where does it come from? Is it a psychological creation of the mind? Was created to avoid feelings of guilt?

Responsibility

What a strikingly deep philosophical issue. I am almost tentative to start on it because it involves so many areas that we just don't know about yet. But thats what makes philosophy so much fun. In fact, you cannot find much of anything discussing the origins of responsibility either from books or from the internet. My view gets a little convoluted, even to me, so I have to take it slowly and step my step so I don't confuse anyone, especially myself!

Over time, the evolutionary process that is, we as a species have discovered what works for us and what doesn't. We have found through trial and error what needs to be done and what needs to be avoided. We have found that society is not good when we allow people to take advantage of others in cases of theft, fraud, manipulation, and even rape. So we outlaw those types of things. We realize that we cannot thrive if we kill each other off, so we outlaw killing and other violent actions.

On an even smaller level, we realized what needed to be done in certain situations. Our brains became set in what needed to be done, the idea that someone had to do it slowly changed into what we consider responsibility. Responsibility is what we have that tells us something needs to be done, and we are the ones who need to do it. Its the natural order, if it must be done, either the logical person to do it steps up, or someone, seeing that job or "responsibility" abandoned, takes it up due to the need.

Many times guilt plays a part, but mostly because we know something had to be done and that someone needed to step up. If it goes unbidden and slips through the cracks, and we know there was something we could have done, we feel guilt. But I think that this guilt comes from the lack of accepting the responsibility that we know we should have taken, and not vise versa.

So in synopsis, we are the by product of years of evolution. Our sense of responsibility has evolved to ensure that everything in our society gets addressed by someone, so that nothing falls through the cracks. Obviously some things do, and some ignore natures call to help the society you are part of. But in the end, it usually gets taken care of and things work out in some form or fashion, for the better or the worse.

Responsibility Health & Special Psychology

I do not usually take the evolution approach to psychology - I tend to think that a person's psychological makeup has to do with his or her own inborn personality traits, combined with the shaping experiences of life. In those experiences, whether playing with dolls or learning table manners from our parents, we come to a natural understanding that those things we love must be maintained, including not only physical objects, but relationships. Thus, when something threatens something we love (even unconsciously, like a person we do not know), we feel responsibility to act, to protect, to become involved in the situation.

Responsibility is a natural outgrowth of fondness, which is present in all people - everybody likes something, and liking it will cause them to feel like they should act to maintain or increase it.