Concept
Universal Responsibility
Also known as responsible to all men for all and everything, each one personally for all mankind and every individual man, every one is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything, each responsible to all for all, more than all others responsible for all, we are all responsible to all for all.
Universal Responsibility is Father Zossima's teaching that each person is answerable not only for private sins but for all people and all things. He speaks it to the monks as the crown of monastic life, not as an abstract theory. At this horizon, the idea joins humility, repentance, and active love: the monk must see himself as worse than others so his heart can open toward everyone.
VI-I. Father Zossima And His Visitors
Markel's dying words give the doctrine its family root: he tells his mother and the servants that each person is guilty before everyone and responsible to everyone.
VI-II. The Duel
Zossima's memory of Markel becomes the beginning of his own moral awakening. After striking Afanasy, he recognizes himself as more responsible than others and begins the path that leads him away from officerly pride.
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