Abstract

In order to convince her readers to take action to address the structural injustices inherent to global age, Iris Young built what she calls a social connection model of responsibility, where responsibility is shared among agents, regardless of their social position and relations. This means that nowadays, being responsible means partaking in collective action in order to redress injustices that result from everyday accepted practices. This said, because structural injustice produces active ignorance, which is a moral, political and epistemic wrong, agents may often fail to understand what it means to be responsible in Young’s model, especially the privileged, who happen to be the most affected by this type of ignorance. In order to solve this problem, I suggest that empathy should be developed in order to be used as an epistemic tool against active ignorance, as well as a motivating force to undertake collective action with the common goal of achieving a more just society. This research paper explores thus the connection between structural injustice, the meaning of responsibility, and suggests ways to enhance our natural capabilities for empathy to make it a component of working model of responsibility, so the original social connection model of responsibility elaborated by Young can work even in a context where active ignorance may impede one to take collective action.