Vito Mancuso’ reflections on taking responsibility for beauty

In Pozza di Fassa on Friday 14 July, theologian and philosopher Vito Mancuso encouraged the large audience to reflect on the theme of taking responsibility for beauty.

Each one of us bears some  responsibility for the extraordinary beauty of the Dolomites World Heritage, that goes without saying, but Vito Mancuso has offered some profound insights into the general concept of responsibility and, more specifically, in relation to shared assets.

“Responsibility is a response; from the Latin “respondeo”, in the sense of a response to a question posed by the environment, by other people, by our body, by our spirit and by our mind.” According to Vito Mancuso “A responsible consciousness is capable of listening to the question, understanding it and providing an effective response. There are two prerequisites for taking responsibility: a) the ability to listen and pay attention; b) putting goodness, justice and harmony into practice. These are the components of that total attitude, of that existential mind-set we call responsibility”.