MORAL DUTY: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The moral duty is the ethical principle on which the actions of a person are based and that allows them to be correct. In this way, a person acts in accordance with moral duty if he abides by the ethical criteria of truth and good.

This may lack universal value, since what may be ethical for some individuals may not be so for others, or it may even be so for one society and not for another. For this reason, for the legal sciences the moral duty does not imply a judicial requirement, because it does not impose any duty on the obligor, except that of conscience.

In order to understand exactly what “moral duty” means, we must refer to Immanuel Kant, who is in charge of treating it within the framework of his ethics. There he argues that it is man's reason that should be used to establish how a person should act or behave.

For this philosopher, the underlying question of moral philosophy is "what should I do?" Therefore, it is from there that he specifies the concept of moral duty and its categorization that he treats in his book Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals.

Related concepts

To specify the characteristics of a moral duty, it is necessary to specify some related Kantian concepts, such as: the categorical imperative and goodwill.

Categorical imperative

The categorical imperative is the most important foundation of morality for Kant. It is an objective and rational foundation that is necessary and unconditional and that, in addition, every individual must continue even against natural inclinations or contrary desires that one has.

That is, the categorical imperative is a rule that is always true, on any occasion.

Goodwill

Immanuel Kant speaks of good will to designate any person who is committed to deciding on what for her are morally worthy considerations. That is why their conduct is guided by undeniable reasons born of such moral considerations.

He also adds that a good will must always be good in itself and not related to other matters, so that it should not be produced for the happiness of the person, for his own well-being or that of others, or for any effect that may or cannot produce.

characteristics

As the categorical imperative makes explicit, that a person takes an action out of duty is because rational stimuli are more important to him than his opposing personal inclinations.

In this sense, Kant conceives of morality not as a duty imposed from the outside, but on the contrary, as what the rational human being recognizes, in full freedom, that reason requires of him. In turn, moral duty can be divided into:

-Perfect moral duty, which is one that is always true, just as it happens with always telling the truth.

-Imperfect moral duty, which is what allows elasticity. It is the case of being charitable; it can be on some occasions and not on others.

Because of this, for Kant the most important are the perfect duties. If there is any conflict between both types of duties, the perfect duty should be followed.

The most prominent characteristics of moral duty are the following:

Autonomous

Because it arises from the rational will of each person.

Universal

Kant stated that the moral and rational law exists before the rational being. That is why he considers rational morality to be universal and cannot change according to context.

Not punishable

The moral duty is not legally sanctioned or punished. A moral sanction or moral condemnation is only the disapproval of certain conduct by the society or group.

Examples

In the personal sphere

Limit situations

When it comes to extreme situations, it is perhaps when the value of a person's moral duty and its corresponding action becomes clearer.

-Assist and assist a seriously injured enemy on a battlefield. Despite being faced in a war or conflict, the moral duty of those who see it is to assist them to save them. He is a human being regardless of the political ideas he has.

-Saving a child who has fallen and is hanging from the railing of a balcony on the sixth floor. In this case, moral duty also becomes an act of heroism.

-Intering a burning house to rescue a dog. Here it is about respect and preservation of life in all its manifestations.

-Stay as close as possible to a person trapped under the rubble of a building collapsed by an earthquake or collapse.

-Rescue flooded people with the own means available, such as a boat or a motorboat.

Daily situations

It includes all those situations in which no life is in danger; however, moral duty is present from the moment in which, as an individual, a certain conduct is decided, even when others can do the same instead of you.

-Help a disabled or elderly person cross the street.

-To feed a person who is hungry and cannot use his own means to get food.

-Return something that has been received as a loan.

-Fulfill with what has been promised or agreed.

-Reintegrate the money from the change of a payment if it has been greater than it should be.

-Giving a briefcase with money that has the data of the person who lost it or that it is publicly known who its owner is. In the case of not knowing it, the means to know the origin and its owner should be exhausted.

-Don't be untrue or not lie.

At the group level

Also as a society there are moral duties of this towards its members and towards other societies or States.

It is clear that in an individual it is easier to be able to verify the concept of moral duty than in a society. However, one can take as a parameter what society as a whole (or at least the majority) considers to be done from the moral point of view.

-Protect children and women alone.

-To take care of the elderly physically, economically and psychologically.

-Give asylum to political and social refugees.

-Respect and assist the original peoples of a territory that has been colonized or conquered by another ethnic group or social group.

-To make all the inhabitants of a territory, nation or continent aware of the need to respect nature and the ecosystem.

References

1. Baron, Marcia (1987). Kantian Ethics and Supererogation. Journal of Philosophy, 84 (5), pp. 237, 262. Research publications. University of St. Andrews. Recovered from risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk.
2. Baron, Marcia (2016). A Kantian Take on the Supererogatory. Journal of Applied Philosophy Vol. 33, Issue 4, pp. 347-362. Recovered from onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
3. Brandt, Richard Brooker (1964). V- The Concepts of Obligation and Duty. In Mind, Vol. LXXIII, Issue 291, pp. 374-393. Retrieved from academic.oup.com.
4. Calvo Álvarez, Felipe (2007). The practical nature of supererogatory acts. Civilize. Social and Human Sciences, Vol. 7, no. 13, pp. 225-237. Sergio Arboleda University, Bogotá, Colombia. Recovered from redalyc.org.
5. Chandía, Yanina Valeria (2005). The information professional: towards an ethical reflection of moral duty and daily experience. Librarianship and Information Management Series No. 2. UTEM. Information Management Department, pp 1-54. Chile. Recovered from sld.cu.
6. Iracheta Fernández, Francisco. Duty and purpose in Kant's ethics. UNAM Magazines, Mexico. Recovered from magazines.unam.mx. (pdf).
7. Johnson, Robert and Cureton, Adam (2018). Kant's Moral Philosophy. Zalta, N (ed) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. plate.stanford.edu.
8. Kant, Immanuel (1785). Groundwork of The metaphysics of morals. Bennett, Jonathan (ed) (2008) (pdf). Recovered from stolaf.edu.
9. Steup, Matthias (ed) (2004). Knowledge, Truth and Duty. Essays on Epistemic Justification, Responsibility and Virtue. Oxford, University Press. New York.