Concept

Duty

Overview

A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; Old French: deu, did, past participle of devoir; Latin: debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may arise from a system of ethics or morality, especially in an honor culture. Many duties are created by law, sometimes including a codified punishment or liability for non-performance. Performing one's duty may require some sacrifice of self-interest.

A sense-of-duty is also a virtue or personality trait that characterizes someone who is diligent about fulfilling individual duties or who confidently knows their calling. A sense-of-duty can also come from a need to fulfill familial pressures and desires. This is typically seen in a militaristic or patriotic way. A distinction is commonly made between "positive duties", which a person must undertake, and "negative duties", which relate to actions from which a person must refrain. Michael Freeman notes that negative duties may be easier to fulfill as they do not require any action.

Cicero, an early Roman philosopher who discusses duty in his work "On Duties", suggests that duties can come from four different sources:

as a result of being a human

as a result of one's particular place in life (one's family, one's country, one's job)

as a result of one's character

as a result of one's own moral expectations for oneself.

The specific duties imposed by law or culture vary considerably, depending on jurisdiction, religion, and social normalities.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Duty is discussed.

Setting aside the question what sort of end that is which is in itself a duty, and how such an end is possible, it is here only necessary to show that a duty of this kind is called a duty of virtue, and why it is so called. To every duty corresponds a right of action (facultas moralis generatim), but all duties do not imply a corresponding right (facultas juridica) of another to compel anyone, but only the duties…
Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics
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As it is only fair always to put the most favourable interpretation on an author's words, we will suppose him to mean that an act true to duty is =objectively= necessary, but =subjectively= accidental.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality
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In denying that duty is simply the _intrinsic_ law, the _self_-manifestation of this life, they make this life immoral, or at least non-moral. They degrade it to a bundle of appetites and powers having no moral value until the outside moral law is applied to them.
John Dewey, Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
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I also set aside those actions which really conform to duty, but to which men have no direct inclination, performing them because they are impelled thereto by some other inclination. For in this case we can readily distinguish whether the action which agrees with duty is done from duty, or from a selfish view. It is much harder to make this distinction when the action accords with duty and the subject has besides a…
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
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German philosophy is attached to antitheses and their reconciliation in a higher synthesis. The Kantian principle of Duty is a striking case of the reconciliation of the seemingly conflicting ideas of freedom and authority. Unfortunately, however, the balance cannot be maintained in practice. Kant's faithful logic compels him to insist that the concept of duty is empty and formal.
John Dewey, German philosophy and politics
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Duty

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Duty

Related ideas

Place in the tradition