Duty and Obligation

Abstract

Any discussion of "duty" and "obligation" will deal with one particular segment of morel language, but not with an area of discourse which can be examined completely in isolation from its surrounding. We cannot give an account of locutions of the form "I have a duty to do X" and "A is under an obligation to do X" without giving some attention to what should be said, not only about locutions like "I ought to do X", but also about "Doing X is wrong", "Doing X is good", "Doing X is wrong because it is rude", "Doing X is wrong because it will hurt somebody", "Doing X is a duty because it is needed".