Responsibility can cast light on the context of consensus, conflict, and education. In terms of juridical responsibility, the person responds to a defined claim or duty. Education as an alive relationship between unique persons is characterized by existential responsibility - the response to a unique and problematic situation. Depending on which kind of society we are referring to, responsibility will serve society best as juridical responsibility when it is a ‘closed society’ and as existential responsibility when it is an ‘open’ (...) democratic society. Education as such will create the potentiality of provocation of conflicts in any kind of society. (shrink)