Understanding responsibility through the issue of the environment – towards a bilateral conception of responsibility?

This chapter aims to examine the concept of responsibility, particularly in relation to the issue of the environment. After establishing an initial typology distinguishing between the possible meanings of the word ‘responsibility’, it will complete it by emphasising that it implies two conditions: the first is a condition of control (or freedom) and the second an epistemic condition linked to the cognitive conditions of the agent; and by establishing a link with the concept of accountability. The issue of the environment is particularly relevant to the question of responsibility, not only because public discourse constantly refers to this concept to consider our relationship with nature but also because it justifies the type of obligations that might be imposed on individuals. This analysis will enable us to distinguish between retrospective and prospective responsibility and to introduce the concept of principle of alternative possibilities. In the light of these elements, it will defend the idea of a two-way responsibility between individuals and institutions.