ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to clarify the preconditions of responsible action and outlines a theory of action that preserves human responsibility. In nearly all of their Indo-European languages, the expressions psychologists use for "being responsible" and "responsibility" derive from a verb that means "to answer." The author presents the decision-situation as a thought of some alternative thoughts. The characteristic of the responsibility game concerns the kind of questions that are posed. The author analyses are based on psychologists' juridical language, but its results go far beyond the realm of positive law and jurisdiction. First, in the case of juridical responsibility, the roles of the defendant, the prosecutor, and the judge are played by different players. In the case of moral responsibility, these roles can be played by one and the same person the second modification is even more important.
