“This is the hallmark of the high and absolute destiny of human
Beings, that they know what good and evil are, and know that the
will itself is either good or evil – in a word, they can have
responsibility [er Schuld haben kann], responsibility not only for evil
but also for good; responsibility not simply for this or that or for
everything that is around them or in them,”
Hegel PH, 97–98; TWA 12:50–51 (translation modified)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831), a German philosopher, declared the responsibility as a characteristic that defines humanity but also acknowledges that some little confusions were existing. Mark Alznauer, in his book Hegel’s Theory of Responsibility (2015), made efforts to clarify these misunderstandings. He describes two sets of questions relating responsibility that needed answers. The first is regarded to the state of being responsible and refers to the inquiries: “What does it mean to be responsible for something? When can we be responsible for what we do? What are the various senses of responsibility and how are they related?” ( p.1) The second set of questions include: Who?; Why?; Under what circumstances? The most original and radical in aspect of philosophy is the fact that Hegel includes the role that social and historical circumstances play in his theory. (Ibid, p. 2)
As far as the historical roots of the term responsibility are cursory overviewed, we realize that the meaning of being answerable to others not only for your actions but for the future at large. The most substantial characteristic of human beings is “to view the future as the present and anticipate it” (Nietzsche, n. p.) Depending on the subject who bears the responsibility we distinguish two main types of it: personal and social or corporate. The personal responsibility is born by the individual alone, and he is accountable for his actions for the benefit of himself. The social responsibility represents an ethical framework in which a person, group of people, organization or entity has a commitment to act for the benefit of society as a whole. Francois Vallaeys explains in his article Defining social responsibility: a matter of philosophical urgency for universities that the responsibility cannot exist without a legal and moral order which provides the continuance of common social trust. Since the risks are on the prowl, people organize themselves together to restrain the future, something they can never do as individuals. (Vallaeys, n. p.)
A bright example of such social responsibility is the participation of about three million African Americans in the World War II (WWII). Emmett J. Scott, in his article A Nigro Leader Explains Why Colored Men Fought for America, 1919, makes the public familiar with the reasons the black men were ready to fight for America. They fought for, as President Roosevelt called, “the four freedoms” – freedom of: speech; fear; want and worship but there were “internal conditions existing in America that were by no means ideal as far as the Nigro were concerned.” (Scott, n. p.) The conditions were really very bad for the colored men: lynching, no work, lack of organization of the life of free citizens which in fact was denied to them. At that time America faced a deep crisis and the leaders of the blacks realized that the nation needs them and that was the right time to show their loyalty to the nation and the government. They realized that it was the best time to demonstrate their support to the government, and that they had first to show loyalty and then demand the human right they were authorized to as American citizens.
Since it was the time of segregation, the enlisted blacks and whites were organized in separate units which gave reason to the German propaganda to emphasize on the existing racial discrimination. The history did not remember more loyal group than that of the black men. The black color had become a symbol of patriotism. The first African American heroes emerged during the Pearl Harbor attack. Later another black men showed amazing bravery and served as examples for American African soldiers’ heroism.
Unfortunately as a conclusion we have to say that after coming home the black veterans were not granted with the privileges and the freedoms that were promised to them and the segregation went on in the same manner as it was before the war. President Harry S. Truman, in July 1948, declared the integration of U. S. Armed Forces stating that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”
Works cited
Alcnauer, M., Hegel’s Theory of Responsibility, Cambridge University Press, 2015,
ISBN: 978-1-107-07812-3, Print
Nietzsche F. (1887 [1996]) La genealogía de la moral, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, Web Accessed on May 7, 2016
Scott, E., A Nigro Leader Explains Why Colored Men Fought for America, 1919, pp. 411 – 414, Obtained from library
Vallaeyss, F., Defining social responsibility: a matter of philosophical urgency for universities, Global University, network for innovations, Web Accessed on May, 7, 2016
