Euthydemos or What a difference a word makes!

Look, dog, you bear the responsibility for shitting on the floor, so I have to punish you!

But master, , if I'm responsible for shitting on the floor, why do punish me? I have shat on the floor.

You're not responsible for shitting on the floor, you're responsible for not shitting on the floor, but despite that you have become responsible for shitting on the floor and that is why I have to punish you!

Because I shat on the floor before I became responsible for doing so?

You became responsible for doing so when you did it! Everybody becomes responsible for doing what he does when he does it!

Hey, where are you going?

I'm intending to become responsible for marking my territory!

It is my territory, dog! And I'm your master! And only I can make you responsible for doing anything! And it is me who holds you responsible! And I have made you responsible for not shitting on the floor and not marking my territory! Yet you have shat on the floor and intend to mark your territory?

But the territory belongs to whosoever marks it and you've said that I would become responsible for marking it by doing so!

Listen, dog, if you claim my territory by marking it, you may become responsible for continuing to do so, but not without a fight and in any case, whether it's your territory or not, you are responsible for your actions and you shat on the floor and what sense of responsibility does it show that you did so?

What do you mean by sense of responsibility? That I'm aware that I did it?

Wait a second, dog. Didn't you so far act as if you understood being responsible as being put in charge? And now you say that being responsible means having done something?

Zuständigkeit und Verantwortung, as I usually use the terms.