Taking Responsibility: Comparative Perspectives

Responsibility has become the queen of modern virtues, Winston Davis argues, even if there is no consensus as to what responsibility means. This illuminating collection of essays encompasses conceptions of responsibility around the globe, as discussed by leading scholars in the fields of philosophy, anthropology, intellectual history, religious studies, classics, and law. Including Law as Response to Thou by Walter Brueggemann, Jewish Philosophers after Heidegger: Levinas and Jonas on Responsibility by Lawrence Vogel, The American Founders’ Responsibility by Ralph Lerner, and Religious Freedom and Civic Responsibility by Amy Gutmann, Taking Responsibility provides a rich dialogue of diverse voices describing the many historical senses of responsibility as well as the vastly different approaches to being responsible that we experience in the modern world.