The Vocation of Responsibility

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During the European Protestant Reformation, one's"calling" to serve humanity became connected to theaccumulation of material rewards. This notion was notnew, as it originated in the Old and New Testaments.This study traces this ethic by examining explicitand implied references to "vocation" in the primarytexts of five major continental philosophers.Fichte's ascetic concept required unity with a totaland holistic transcendental power. When Kierkegaardreconsidered this idealistic notion, he lamented thedisappearance of the single individual. His notion ofvocation is explicitly religious and incorporates aconcept of "conversion" that emphasizes a response tothe suffering of others. Nietzsche's ethical conceptof responsibility is directly related to his originalnotions of truth and persona as a multiplicity offorces. For Nietzsche, being "called" to serve othersrequires freedom from resentment and learning to lovecomplacently. These ethical concepts show up inLévinas' and Derrida's postmodern ethics. Lévinas'emphasis on "the other" and Derrida's examination of"pure giving" displays how the ancient and modernconcept of "vocation" is articulated in original ways.