2022-05-19 Responsibility

“Freedom without responsibility is an oxymoron,” observed Viktor Frank. Frank suggested that the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on the East Coast be supplemented by a “Statue of Responsibility” somewhere along the West Coast.

In the classic Man’s Search for Meaning, Frank explained,

Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.

The notion of responsibility is also stressed throughout existentialism. The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in Existentialism Is a Humanism, Not only is man what he conceives himself to be… man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.

Spiritual traditions also highlight the need for personal responsibility. “We ourselves must walk the path,” insisted the Buddha. Put another way, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross… but you yourself alone.”