Social Choice Phenomenology — A Critique of Sartre (Part 5)

In this paper we discuss the issue of choice and responsibility. Concerning this issue, Sartre has two viewpoints: a conventional one and an unconventional one. The conventional view holds that each of us must be responsible for our own choices and that nothing else bears responsibility for them. The unconventional view holds that our choices should be responsible to all of humanity. In this paper we mainly discuss the conventional view and divide responsibility into two parts: whether one ought to be responsible and whether one is in fact responsible. We find that the things that ought to be responsible and the things that are actually responsible do not coincide. This constitutes an internal contradiction.