Single Idea 23071

[catalogued under 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 4. Responsibility for Actions]

Full Idea

The problem of responsibility would have a meaning only if we had been consulted before our birth and had consented to be precisely who we are.

Gist of Idea

We could only be responsible if we had consented before birth to who we are

Source

E.M. Cioran (The Trouble with Being Born [1973], 06)

Book Reference

Cioran,E.M.: 'The Trouble with Being Born', ed/tr. Richard Howard [Penguin 2012], p.82


A Reaction

The question could still be asked retrospectively, like agreeing to be in an army into which you have been conscripted. People gripped by deeply anti-social desires would probably welcome the chance to become different.