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Single Idea 23071

[filed under theme 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 Ref

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.

The 17 ideas from 'The Trouble with Being Born'

23064 So-called wisdom is just pondering things instead of acting [Cioran]
23062 It is better to watch the hours pass, than trying to fill them [Cioran]
23063 The first man obviously found paradise unendurable [Cioran]
23067 Suicide is pointless, because it always comes too late [Cioran]
23065 If only we could write like a reptile, of endless sensations and no concepts! [Cioran]
23068 People who really believe anti-realism don't bother to prove it [Cioran]
23066 Negation doesn't arise from reasoning, but from deep instincts [Cioran]
23069 Fear cures boredom, because it is stronger [Cioran]
23071 We could only be responsible if we had consented before birth to who we are [Cioran]
23070 We morally dissolve if we spend time with excessive beauty [Cioran]
23072 Systems are the worst despotism, in philosophy and in life [Cioran]
23073 Convictions are failures to study anything thoroughly [Cioran]
23076 If people always acted without words we would take them for robots [Cioran]
23075 A text explained ceases to be a text [Cioran]
23074 In anxiety people cling to what reinforces it, because it is a deep need [Cioran]
23077 The word 'being' is very tempting, but in fact means nothing at all [Cioran]
23078 Opinions are fine, but having convictions means something has gone wrong [Cioran]