Argument
Obligation
Overview
An obligation is a course of action which someone is required to take, be it a legal obligation or a moral obligation. Obligations are constraints; they limit freedom. People who are under obligations may choose to freely act under obligations. Obligation exists when there is a choice to do what is morally good and what is morally unacceptable. There are also obligations in other normative contexts, such as obligations of etiquette, social obligations, religious, and possibly in terms of politics, where obligations are requirements which must be fulfilled. These are generally legal obligations, which can incur a penalty for non-fulfilment, although certain people are obliged to carry out certain actions for other reasons as well, whether as a tradition or for social reasons.
Obligations vary from person to person: for example, a person holding a political office will generally have far more obligations than an average adult citizen, who themselves will have more obligations than a child. Obligations are generally granted in return for an increase in an individual's rights or power.
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 Obligation is discussed.
A change of the obligation supposes a change of the sentiment; and a creation of a new obligation supposes some new sentiment to arise. But 'tis certain we can naturally no more change our own sentiments than the motions of the heavens; nor by a single act of our will, that is, by a promise, render any action agreeable or disagreeable, moral or…
David Hume, Philosophical Works, v. 2
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
Public interest, education, and the artifices of politicians, have the same effect in both cases. The difficulties, that occur to us, in supposing a moral obligation to attend promises, we either surmount or elude. For instance; the expression of a resolution is not commonly supposed to be obligatory; and we cannot readily conceive how the making use of a certain form of words should be able to cause any material…
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
What =ought= to be done is therefore necessarily conditioned by punishment or reward; consequently, to use Kant's language, it is essentially and inevitably =hypothetical=, and never, as he maintains, =categorical=. If we think away these conditions, the conception of obligation becomes void of sense; hence absolute obligation is most certainly a _contradictio in adjecto._ A commanding voice, whether it come from…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
The Source and Nature of Obligation. The basis of a correct theory of obligation lies, as already stated, in holding fast to its concrete relations to the moral end, or good. This end consists in an activity in which capacity is exercised in accordance with surroundings, with the social needs which affect the individual.
John Dewey, Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
3. Another obligation is love, when a Christian voluntarily makes himself a servant of all men. Paul says (1 Cor 9, 19), "For though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all." This is not a requirement of human laws; no one who fails in this duty is censured or punished for neglect of legal…
Martin Luther, Epistle Sermons, Vol. 2
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Obligation
- Harry Frankfurt
- Immanuel Kant
- Simone Weil
- Richard Price
- Alasdair MacIntyre
- Michael Walzer
- Peter Unger
- Julian Savulescu
Related ideas
- John Rawls
- Law
- Contract
- Religion
- Robert Nozick
- Tradition
- Moral responsibility
- Freedom
- Judicial interpretation
Place in the tradition
Part of Agnosticism.