Paraphrase: Moral responsibility means you have a duty to act (or refrain from acting) because your choices affect other people’s wellbeing. It ties what you do to how others fare — so you can be praised, blamed, or held accountable for those effects.

Key terms

• Moral responsibility — being answerable for the moral consequences of your actions toward others.
• Duty — an obligation to act in a certain way because of moral reasons, roles, or relationships.
• Wellbeing — the health, happiness, and basic interests of people affected by actions.
• Causation — the connection showing your action made a difference to others’ wellbeing.
• Mens rea / intent (brief) — whether you intended the outcome, which influences blame or praise.

Why it matters here

• Accountability: If our actions shape others’ lives, moral responsibility helps decide who should be held accountable and why.
• Policy and collective harms: On large-scale issues (e.g., climate change, technology), individual and institutional duties determine who must act to prevent harm.
• Moral emotions and social norms: Practices like blame, praise, and apology regulate behavior and encourage people to consider others’ wellbeing.

Follow-up questions or next steps

• Do you want a short example (personal or societal) showing how moral responsibility works in practice?
• Would you like a plain-language comparison of responsibility, blameworthiness, and obligation?

Further reading / references

• Responsibility — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (search query: “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy responsibility”)
• “On What We Owe to Each Other” — T. Scanlon (search query: “Thomas Scanlon What We Owe to Each Other book”)

Paraphrase: Structural injustice refers to institutional and social arrangements (like laws, policies, economic systems, or cultural practices) that systematically disadvantage certain groups and produce ongoing harm, even when no individual intends that harm.

Key terms

• Structural injustice — harm built into social systems and institutions that persist over time.
• Institution — an established organization or pattern (e.g., legal system, schools, labor market) that shapes behavior.
• Systemic bias — patterned ways a system favors some groups and disadvantages others.
• Consequential inequality — differences in well-being (health, wealth, safety) caused by social structures rather than individual choices.

Why it matters here

• Explains long-term shame: If future generations see persistent avoidable harms (poverty, segregation, climate vulnerability) as the result of choices we could have changed, they may judge our era harshly.
• Differs from individual wrongdoing: Structural injustice shifts focus from a few bad actors to how ordinary rules and practices combine to produce harm.
• Guides responsibility and repair: Recognizing structures helps identify policy changes, redistribution, or institutional reforms needed to reduce harm rather than just blaming individuals.

Follow-up questions or next steps

• Which specific institutions (education, policing, housing, economy) do you want an example for?
• Would you like a short checklist for spotting structural injustice in a policy or institution?

Further reading / references

• “Structural Injustice” — Iris Marion Young, Social Philosophy and Policy (search query: “Iris Marion Young structural injustice 2006 essay”)
• “Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Difference” — Iris Marion Young (book) (search query: “Iris Marion Young Justice Gender Politics of Difference book”)

Paraphrase of the selection: To reduce what future generations might look back on with shame (e.g., injustice, environmental destruction, extreme inequality), institutions today should be redesigned to be more just, accountable, democratic, and future‑oriented.

Key terms

• Institution — an organized set of rules and practices (e.g., governments, corporations, universities) that shape social life.
• Accountability — systems that make actors answer for harms and correct mistakes.
• Deliberative democracy — decision‑making that emphasizes informed discussion and inclusion of affected people.
• Precautionary/future‑oriented policy — policy that gives weight to long‑term harms and non‑human stakeholders (e.g., future people, ecosystems).
• Redistribution — policies (taxes, public services) that reduce extreme inequality.

Why it matters here

• Institutional design determines which harms are allowed, hidden, or corrected; better design reduces systemic wrongdoing that later looks shameful.
• Short-term incentives (e.g., profit, reelection) often produce long-term harms; reform can align incentives with longer time horizons and public goods.
• Structural reforms make accountability collective rather than dependent on a few whistleblowers, reducing repeated abuses and legacy shame.

Concrete reforms to prioritize (brief bullets)

• Strengthen democratic participation
  • Expand voting access, proportional representation, citizen assemblies or participatory budgeting to ensure diverse voices shape policy.
• Build robust accountability and transparency
  • Independent oversight bodies, strong whistleblower protections, public reporting of harms and corporate lobbying.
• Reorient incentives to long-term public goods
  • Mandate climate and social impact assessments, require fiduciary duty to include long-term risks, introduce sunset clauses and periodic reviews for policies.
• Reduce concentrated power and inequality
  • Progressive taxation, anti‑monopoly enforcement, stronger labor protections, publicly funded essential services (health, education).
• Institutionalize future stakeholders
  • Create ombudspersons or institutions for future generations and ecological interests to weigh into decisions.
• Improve civic education and ethical norms
  • Teach critical thinking, civic responsibility, and history of past injustices so citizens and leaders better recognize harms.
• Legal and cultural reforms to address past wrongs
  • Truth commissions, reparations where appropriate, and public acknowledgment of harms to prevent denial and repetition.

Follow-up questions or next steps

• Which type of institution do you most want to focus on (government, corporations, education, or legal system)?
• Do you prefer concrete policy examples for a specific country or general institutional principles?

Further reading / references

• Why Nations Fail — Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson (book) — good overview of how institutions shape outcomes (search query: “Why Nations Fail institutions Acemoglu Robinson”).
• Designing Deliberative Democracy — James S. Fishkin (work on citizen assemblies) — search query: “James Fishkin citizen assemblies deliberative democracy”.