Is responsibility worthwhile?

Abstract

The article starts from a questioning that introduces, in relation to the topic of responsibility, an equivocation in the word “worthwhile”. After characterizing law in the present as a fragmented and debilitated body, the author asks what could reestablish the force of law and the dignity of responsible acts. For that purpose, a surprising thesis is advanced: law and responsibility will only recover their force through the anticipation of power and even of extreme violence, viz. the death penalty. However, this doesn’t refer to the executed death penalty, but to the one that could be anticipated, thus determining that responsible acts are worthwhile, which would then indicate the symbolic and actual force of the law.

Key words: responsibility, death penalty, law, desire, psychoanalysis.