What does it truly mean to take responsibility?
Common View — A Starting Point
In business settings, “responsibility” is often understood in a rather straightforward way:
to take charge of a task, to be accountable for results, or to face the consequences of one’s decisions.
In other words, responsibility is typically associated with obligation, duty, and explanation.
But is that really all there is to it?
A Philosopher’s Perspective — Interview with Jeanne
“Taking responsibility means holding the reins of the unknown.”
When I look at this question, even if responsibility is the key concept, I first notice the verb in the phrase: we
“take”
responsibility. Or we don’t. Some people might give the superficial impression that they are taking responsibility, but they do not
truly
do so – as the question suggests.
Taking responsibility is a conscious decision to
expose oneself to risk
: if I take responsibility for a project, I become the one who will be praised or blamed depending on how the project unfolds – accidents included. I expose myself to potential (painful) feelings of guilt.
But the weight of integrity is also an empowering feeling of ownership and control; of holding the reins of an endeavor whose consequences I cannot possibly know in advance.
When I take responsibility, I voluntarily engage; I actively accept commitment. I assume a burden I now own. What may initially look like an external obligation becomes an internal moral accountability, which involves the capacity and willingness to respond
through time
: to past actions, an acknowledged present, and possible future repairs.
When I take responsibility,
I make a promise
Defining the boundaries of what my responsibility encompasses – and with whom I might share it – is crucial to ensuring that I am truly up to the challenge, and so that others know to what extent they can rely on me.
Another Lens — Interview with Kyle
When I think about responsibility, I think about its etymological roots in a capacity to answer, or quality of giving answers.
Sometimes, when we say “take responsibility,” we’re asking someone to recognize their power in answering, or having answered, a challenge. In this past sense, truly taking responsibility is a sort of clear-eyed honesty and transparency about what you did and why you did it. We can go too far here, however, for we can only rightly take responsibility for things that we actually answered for, that actually involved our will or voice. I worry that much suffering flows from trying to take responsibility for things that were out of our control in the first place.
I think that the more interesting case of truly taking responsibility is forward-looking, something like taking on the weight of being the cause, not just a cause, of some future action or decision. When I take responsibility for something, I take on the weight of its success or failure. My choices for that thing become an expression of my will in the world, and shapes a part of my identity. In this sense, truly taking on responsibility is a deliberate commitment about how to be in the world.
Editorial Reflection
Philosophers Jeanne and Kyle both reveal something easy to overlook:
Responsibility is not just about tasks, roles, or consequences.
It’s about how individuals — especially leaders — position themselves in the flow of time and uncertainty.
It’s about language, courage, and the stories we choose to claim as our own.
Perhaps responsibility is less a burden to carry, and more a voice to be found.
About the Contributors
Kyle Kyle Robertson is an American philosopher and educator at UC Santa Cruz, where he teaches in the Philosophy and Legal Studies departments. A former intellectual property lawyer with a J.D. from UC Berkeley, he now focuses on bringing philosophy into public life. As Program Director at the Center for Public Philosophy, he leads initiatives such as the Ethics Bowl and philosophy programs for youth and communities. He believes philosophy is for everyone — a way of thinking that can transform how we lead, learn, and live.
Jeanne Jeanne Proust is a French philosopher and educator whose work spans ethics, technology, feminist theory, and aesthetics. She has taught philosophy for over fifteen years in the U.S. and Europe and served as Director of the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz. Currently Vice President of the Public Philosophy Network, Jeanne is deeply committed to bringing philosophy beyond academia — through public talks, prison education programs, and creative collaborations with artists. She also runs a philosophical counseling practice that helps individuals explore their values and worldviews.
About This Series
Purpose: To create a space where readers can’t help but think — where questions linger, provoke, and inspire reflection.
Each month, we explore a new theme (Responsibility, Freedom, Diversity, Technology…) through philosophical perspectives that challenge conventional thinking.