Global Accountability

Abstract

AbstractChapter 6 begins an exploration of global accountability. Many people have a sense that they are accountable for how they live their lives as a whole. Often these people are religious and see themselves as accountable in this way to God, but many people who are not believers still see themselves as accountable. This chapter first provides a taxonomy of various ways of understanding and explaining global accountability. Secular accountability sees this as accountability to other humans, either oneself (Kant), other people (social contract views), or the human moral community (Darwall). Transcendent accountability by contrast holds that global accountability requires a transcendent ground, either a personal God (theistic accountability), some metaphysical reality, or some transcendent principle. This chapter mainly explores secular accountability and argues that all three forms face two difficult problems: (1) the source of normativity problem; (2) the problem of providing determinate content for what we humans are accountable for doing.