responsibility, a condition that relates an agent to actions of, and consequences connected to, that agent, and is always necessary and sometimes sufficient for the appropriateness of certain kinds of appraisals of that agent. Responsibility has no single definition, but is several closely connected specific concepts.
Role responsibility. Agents are identified by social roles that they occupy, say parent or professor. Typically duties are associated with such roles – to care for the needs of their children, to attend classes and publish research papers. A person in a social role is “responsible for” the execution of those duties. One who carries out such duties is “a responsible person” or “is behaving responsibly.”
Causal responsibility. Events, including but not limited to human actions, cause other events.
The cause is “responsible” for the effect. Causal responsibility does not imply consciousness;
objects and natural phenomena may have causal responsibility