ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. In the book, moral responsibility is still a hugely rich and variegated concept, with so many implications for people's understanding of what it means to live a human life. It began with what has been of most interest to philosophers and lawyers, namely the individual's responsibility for a discrete act, and the various ways that others can evaluate and respond to that responsibility. The book then moved to the broader notion of prospective responsibility for a patient, a stranger and for a situation and for one's life. Finally, the unity of the concept requires a better understanding of three dichotomies that have been running throughout the book: the subjective-objective dichotomy, the active-passive dichotomy captured in the notion of a response, and the personal-impersonal dichotomy. There is an eliminable tension at the heart of all three dichotomies, one that relates intimately with human condition.
