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Justice · Lecture 17 of 19 · 5:48

BBC: Collective Responsibility

Study guide

What this lecture covers

This excerpt from the BBC documentary "Justice: A Citizen's Guide to the 21st Century" explores whether moral responsibility can be collective as well as individual. Sandel interviews a German who feels his generation remains morally responsible for the Holocaust, regardless of whether his own grandparents committed any crimes, because the genocide was a crime of an entire society. Sandel then asks whether Kant's ethics, which ground responsibility in what a person freely chooses, can make sense of that claim, and uses the discussion to introduce the course's turn toward Aristotle and the question of whether justice can be separated from ideas about the good life.

After watching, you should be able to state the argument for collective responsibility given in the interview and explain why Sandel thinks it sits uneasily with a strictly Kantian view of moral responsibility.

Key ideas

Collective responsibility: the claim that a generation can bear moral responsibility for wrongs committed by its society, independent of individual guilt or direct participation.
Kant's individualist limit: for Kant, a person is responsible only for what they freely choose, which makes it hard to justify inheriting responsibility for a nation's past crimes.
Identity and obligations of solidarity: the interview connects back to the course's broader question of whether obligations tied to nationality, history or culture are real moral obligations or something Kantian ethics can't fully capture.
Transition to Aristotle: the clip closes by posing whether justice can be defined without first addressing questions about the good life, setting up the course's turn to Aristotle's more demanding, purpose-driven idea of politics.

Before you watch

This clip connects to the course's lectures on Kant and on the communitarian critique of the "unencumbered self," and works best with that context already in mind.

Check your understanding

What reason does the interviewee give for feeling morally responsible for the Holocaust despite not personally living through it?
Why does Sandel suggest Kant's ethics has difficulty making sense of collective or inherited responsibility?
How does this discussion of collective responsibility connect to the course's later turn toward Aristotle?

Vocabulary

collective responsibility (noun): The idea that a whole group can be morally responsible for something, not just individuals.
The interview explores collective responsibility for the Holocaust.
genocide (noun): The deliberate killing of a large group of people, often of a particular nation or ethnicity.
The Holocaust was a genocide committed by an entire society.
generation (noun): A group of people born and living around the same time.
He feels his generation still bears responsibility for the past.
individualist (adjective): Focused on the single person rather than the group.
Kant's individualist ethics ties responsibility to personal choice.
inherit (responsibility) (verb): To receive something, such as a duty or debt, from previous generations.
Can a person inherit responsibility for crimes they didn't commit?
guilt (noun): The fact of having done something wrong, or the feeling of having done so.
He feels guilt despite not personally committing any crime.
sit uneasily with (phrase): To not fit well or comfortably with something.
Collective responsibility sits uneasily with Kant's individualist view.
nationality (noun): The status of belonging to a particular nation.
Obligations tied to nationality raise questions about identity.
purpose-driven (adjective): Guided by a specific goal or aim.
Aristotle's purpose-driven idea of politics differs from Kant's.
transition (noun): A change or movement from one topic, state, or stage to another.
The clip marks a transition toward the study of Aristotle.
regardless of (phrase): Without being affected or influenced by something.
He feels responsible regardless of his own grandparents' actions.
society (whole) (noun): A large group of people living together with shared institutions.
The genocide was a crime committed by an entire society.
make sense of (phrase): To find a way to understand or explain something.
Can Kant's ethics make sense of collective responsibility?
excerpt (noun): A short part taken from a longer piece of writing or media.
This excerpt comes from a longer BBC documentary.
posing (a question) (verb): Asking or raising a question for consideration.
The clip closes by posing whether justice needs the good life.
personally (adverb): Done or experienced by oneself, directly.
He didn't personally live through the events he feels responsible for.
wrongdoing (noun): Behavior that is illegal or immoral.
He feels connected to the wrongdoing of a previous generation.
framework (ethical) (noun): A basic structure of ideas used to think about right and wrong.
Kant's ethical framework centers on individual choice.
cue (into a topic) (noun): A signal that leads into the next subject or idea.
The interview gives a cue into the course's next topic.
explore (a topic) (verb): To examine or discuss a subject in detail.
The clip explores whether responsibility can be collective.

From the YouTube description

To register for the 2015 course, visit https://www.edx.org/course/justice-harvardx-er22-1x-0.

Should this generation of Germans take responsibility for addressing the evils perpetrated by their grandparents' generation during the Holocaust? Should this generation of Americans take responsibility for remedying the injustice of slavery? This excerpt from the BBC documentary "Justice: A Citizen's Guide to the 21st Century" asks whether moral responsibility can be collective as well as individual.

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