Responsibility ethics from positions of modern sociological methodology

The problem of moral and social responsibility has yet not become a sovereign topic in contemporary sociology. Responsibility can be understood as a way of connection between an individual and society. In this type of interaction individual, social, and cultural connections among group members are stable and strong; its possible disunity is easily overcome. The following sociological aspects are considered in the research: study of the category of responsibility inclusive of its historic and methodological development; identification of the moral and social essence of the category; determination of the role played by the responsibility in culture and its transformation in postmodern theory; study of the responsibility’s transfer process from one generation to another; recognition of different types of responsibility; identification of its characteristic features and essence from the stand point of the socio-cultural approach. We distinguished several types of future responsibility: religious, rational, and utopian. Social progress of the society depends on the depth of the generations’ involvement into the process of problem solving. The responsibility of transferring gained experience is inherent to all generations. The next generation is responsible for taking it. This formula demonstrates the importance of mutual responsibility for the future of the society. Responsibility problem touches upon a wide range of questions connected with time perception, control over people’s behavior, mechanisms of intergenerational responsibility transfer, and generations’ responsibility for making group decisions.