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We become healthy persons as we learn to balance freedom with accountability, autonomy with responsibility. Personhood is a way of becoming expressive as an individual within a social context of other persons. My freedom is a product of my social condition, and it brings with it the full responsibility of proper response to others, which includes a recognition of and respect for the voice of the other person. Personal relations are a calling to account for myself and my behaviour. I am answerable to you for what I say and do. You are likewise accountable to me. I recognize you and your autonomy and you recognize me and mine. But we also hold each other accountable for what we are, say and do–social realism.

Unfortunately libertarians emphasize freedom of choice to an extreme degree, but give less head to accountability within a social context. Nor do they really understand the origins of healthy freedom or its metaphysical basis. Subject to subject encounter is one of mutual recognition, in which each recognizes the other’s autonomy; it also holds the other responsible for what they are and do: the game of life that they play.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

~George Bernard Shaw

ARC Speech by Jordan Peterson on Faith and Responsibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTS57hkAUk

Virtue consists in the ability take full responsibility for one’s acts, intentions, and avowals, in the face of all the motives for renouncing or denouncing them. It is the ability to retain and sustain the first-personal centre of one’s life and emotions, in the face of decentering temptations with which we are surrounded and which reflect the fact that we are human beings, with animal fears and appetites, and not transcendental subjects, motivated by reason alone….. Virtues are dispositions that we praise, and their absence is the object of shame…. It is through virtue that our actions and emotions remain centred in the self, and vice means the decentering of action and emotion…. Vice is literally a loss of self-control, and the vicious person is the one on whom we cannot rely in matters of obligation and commitment…. Freedom and accountability are co-extensive in the human agent…. Freedom and community are linked by their very nature, and the truly free being is always taking account of others in order to coordinate his or her presence with theirs…. We need the virtues that transfer our motives from the animal to the personal centre of our being–the virtues that put us in charge of our passions [because] we exist within a tightly woven social context. Human beings find their fulfilment in mutual love and self-giving, but they get to this point via a long path of self-development, in which imitation, obedience and self-control are necessary moments….. Let’s put virtue and good habits back at the centre of personal life.” (R. Scrutin, On Human Nature, 100, 103, 104, 111, 112)

Skill Set for Wisdom & Healthy Dialogue: Take the time to become wise (Proverbs 8)

• Able to pursue ideas amidst diversity and think for yourself.
• Champion a continual search for the truth, and disagreement with lies and deception, propaganda, poor scholarship. Constantly upgrade your views.
• Beware: too much choice can be harmful to one’s psychological and sociological wellbeing.
• Don’t buy into relativism or subjectivism (unfortunately, 70% of Canadians do just that). It cannot be lived well—it is definitely not good for human flourishing, communal wellbeing.
• Remember that your personal opinion might be poorly examined and ill-informed, weak empirically, bigoted or seriously biased. Hold your position in a humble manner. Don’t be arrogant.
• Celebrate high values/virtues/ideals: honesty, trustworthiness, compassion, decency, respect for life, good environmental stewardship, taking responsibility for your behaviour and for others (inclusive humanism).
• Shun dishonesty, cheating, abuse, exploitation, theft, fraud, plagiarism, violence, things causing emotional pain and suffering to others, the not-so-good or dark side of human character.
• Ask yourself what leads to a truly good life? Set your radar on that.
• Learn to distinguish between good, better, and best decisions. Not all theories or worldviews, not all friends or interlocutors are of equal value. There is a hierarchy among the moral goods.
• Think about the consequences of your actions and decisions, including the unintended ones.
• Let a high view of love guide your choices: love God first and also your fellow travellers.