Some Individual Responsibilities Intertwined With Collectives

Abstract Individuals’ responsibilities to remediate harm intertwine in many ways with the responsibilities of groups. This chapter investigates the nature and sources of these responsibilities. It distinguishes three kinds. First, one might be bound to remediate harm because one has caused or causally contributed to the harm. Such responsibilities themselves divide into two kinds: One is fundamentally collective but trickles down to individuals, whereas the other is fundamentally individual but can “trickle up” to collectives. Second, one might have a responsibility to remediate harm not in virtue of any causal contribution to harm but simply because one is in a position to do so (“humanitarian responsibilities”). Intermediate between these two categories is a third: One might have a responsibility to remediate because one has benefited from harm to a person or group even though one has played no causal role in bringing it about.