Accountable – to be able to give an account
Socrates says in one of his dialogues – “Or haven’t you seen such people who can’t give an account or keep one?” (citing by memory)
He was being amazed of how it is simply not possible to have a meaningful argument/conversation when there is no ability to hold a consistent account.
Turns out, the main meaning of account is “a description of an event or experience”.
Philosophers give each other an account of how some situation is, and then this account is being used to cary out the subsequent discussions.
I always associated accountable with financial accounting, and thought of it as a second grade activity in life, something that doesn’t deserve as much respect as creativity for example.
But now I realize that accountable actually means that a person is able to see things the way they are in actuality and is able to describe it in a way that is true to how things are.
Which is definitely a key moment for any interesting rational activity to take place.
So my attitude towards the concept of (or maybe the word) accountable has now changed.
I’m sure most people take accountable to be somewhat similar to responsible. A lot of comparisons dance around both of these being similar, but basically end up saying that accountable is same as being responsible for the whole, where responsible is only for a part. Or that accountable is to have ownership.
But these are not correct. Accountable is whether you can provide an account. And an adequate account. And then I guess there is some expectation that if you are able to provide an adequate account then you will also be responsible for each of the items that compose your account. But the first step is to be able to provide (and keep) the account, the clear and correct picture.
