Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 13, 2018

Existential Philosophy

Samuel Asuquo Ekanem
Pages 13-18

Personal Responsibility and Social Development
Implication for Global Ethics

Modernity and globalization are contemporary concepts that tend to promote individualism within the social context. This is largely due to the competitive nature of the present age. Several institutions such as the economic, political, legal and educational seem to be constructed on the basis of the individuals. This has placed a burden on the individual as to what he does, and it is on the basis of this that personal responsibility as an obligation to oneself becomes a rational discourse within the context of social development. This is anchored on the Platonic notion that society is man’s-writ-large. It is your individual duty to ensure your good character and behaviour irrespective of how you were brought up. When an individual accepts the fact that he is morally bound and responsible for his action(s), then such action(s) will be taken positively to bring about individual good deeds. When all the individuals in a given society act within the bounds of responsibility and with good conscience, the society will develop. This paper, posits that personal responsibility promotes social development where such responsibility is tainted with moral imperatives that constitute the social norm. This will be approached from the perspectives of existentialism and essencism.