책임의 의미와 성격에 관한 역사적 탐색

This paper pursues an understanding of the meaning and characteristics of responsibility by the way of the conceptual history of responsibility. The word ‘responsibility’ began to be used in the mid 18th century, and had been spread out with the idea of democracy since the French Revolution. It had soon replaced the word ‘imputation’ in the field of philosophy. As a result, responsibility, until now, has the double structure of meaning. In other words,it includes the meaning structure which the traditional philosophical word ‘imputation’ brought as well as the new meaning structure which the word ‘responsibility’ has newly added. Recently, some philosophers with more and more persuasion maintain that responsibility should be precedent to freedom. The historical inquiry as above draws the following conclusions regarding the meaning and characteristics of responsibility. ⅰ) Responsibility is a kind of communication over the justification of an action. ⅱ) It is not the fixed, but relational concept in that its content depends on the relation of the parties of the communication, and also the practical concept for solving social problems. ⅲ) It has been developed on the premise that it is compatible with the weak determinism in the sense of impossibility of other acts other than the act done. ⅳ) The Korean word ‘responsibility’(책임) has weakened the nuance of communication, but strengthened the nuance of burden.