Everything about Duty totally explained
Duty (from "due," that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, did, past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. "
debt") is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action, and it isn't a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognizes a duty, that person commits himself/herself to the cause involved without considering the self-interested courses of actions that may have been relevant previously. This isn't to suggest that living a life of duty precludes one from the best sort of life, but duty does involve some sacrifice of immediate self-interest.
Cicero is an early philosopher who acknowledged this possibility. He discusses duty in his work “On Duty." He suggests that duties can come from four different sources:
- It is a result of being human
- It is a result of one's particular place in life (your family, your country, your job)
- It is a result of one's personality
- One's own moral expectations for yourself can generate duties
But it seems that one can be compelled to live up to a duty. That isn't always the case. In the case of mandatory child support, a parent is being put in such a position.
From the root idea of
obligation to serve or give something in return, involved in the conception of duty, have sprung various derivative uses of the word; thus it's used of the services performed by a
minister of a
church, by a
soldier, or by any
employee or servant.
A special application is to a
tax, a payment due to the revenue of a state, by
force of law. Properly a "duty" differs from a "tax" in being levied on specific commodities, transactions, estates, &c., and not on individuals; thus it's right to talk of import-duties, excise-duties, death or succession-duties and etc., but of
income tax as being levied on a person in proportion to his income.
Many schools of thought have debated the idea of duty. While many assert mankind's duty on their own terms, some philosophers have absolutely rejected a sense of duty.
Further Information
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