6.1 Realizing responsibility through class participation  (Page 2/4)

Exercise 1: provide a morally justifiable excuse for missing class

• Offer an honest and responsible ethical assessment of the reason you were unable to carry out your role responsibility for coming to class. Note that the default here is attending class and any departure from the default (i.e., missing class) requires a moral justification.
• Begin by examining whether your action can be classified as an excuse arising out of compulsion or ignorance.
• Your absence may not be morally excusable. In this case, you cannot excuse your absence but still must explain it.
• Remember that, following Aristotle, you must show that your action was done under and because of compulsion or under and because of ignorance. In other words, you must show that it did not arise from past negligence or recklessness.

Proactive/prospective responsibility

Principle of responsive adjustment

• Responsibility for both good and bad things often emerges as a pattern exhibited by a series of action. If you miss one class after establishing a pattern of good attendance and active participation, then your teacher will look for something exceptional that prevented you from doing what you habitually do. But if one absence falls into a series with other absences, then this reveals a pattern and your teacher begins to classify you as someone who is chronically absent.
• So, it is not enough to offer a moral excuse to get "off the hook" for your absence. Expressing remorse, guilt, and regret do not substitute for taking active measures to avoid repeating the wrongful act. These changes or responsive adjustments clue others in to whether you have learned from your past mistakes. What happened in the past was bad and you regret it; but are you willing to make the necessary changes in your future conduct to avoid repetition of the bad act?
• This is expressed by the "Principle of Responsive Adjustment" (or PRA). Stated negatively, failure to take measures to prevent past excusable wrongs from reoccurring in the future leads to a reevaluation of these past actions. Failure to responsively adjust shows that the past action belongs to context of similar bad actions indicating a bad habit or bad character. This, in turn, leads to a reevaluation of the past act; what when taken in isolation was not blameworthy becomes blameworthy when inserted into this broader context. Showing an unwillingness to learn from the past betrays entrenched attitudes of negligence, carelessness, or recklessness. (See Peter A. French, Corporate and Collective Responsibility)