Civil, family, economic and many other legal relationships entail financial obligations. Their occurrence and violation gives rise to such concepts as debt and indebtedness. Despite the semantic similarity, these terms have two different meanings.
Concept and characteristics of a current liability
Concluding a credit agreement, leasing, or processing a loan assumes that the borrower borrows funds and undertakes to repay them in a timely manner in compliance with the agreed conditions. This is a duty, that is current liability for the return of received property or monetary assets. The meaning of the term only confirms a legal fact, but does not imply that the agreement is broken or not respected.
Reasons for occurrence:
- Mutual agreement – contracts, credits, loans;
- Legal grounds - alimony, fines, judgment, taxes.
In other words, the concept is interpreted as an obligation to pay something in fixed time on agreed or legally established conditions in strict accordance with the payment procedure.
Violation of agreements
Debt is an untimely fulfilled or ignored obligation, that is, the amount of money that must be paid in order for the debt to be covered.
Signs:
- This is not a current obligation to pay, but a breach thereof;
- Applicable for legal and individuals(accounts payable and receivable);
- Legal liability applies.
Examples: non-payment of taxes, evasion of alimony, lack of loan payments.
Debt is always expressed in monetary amount. To protect its interests, the lender has the right to go to court, which means the likelihood of recovering not only the principal amount, but also the accrual of penalties in the form of penalties, interest and lost profits.
You or your acquaintances, friends, relatives have probably ever used in your speech such phrases as “moral duty”, “I will owe”, “repay debts”, etc. Have you ever wondered what debt is? In what equivalent can it be measured?
Definition of the word "debt"
This word can be understood both in its literal and figurative meaning:
Direct meaning. Debt is something (most often we are talking about money) borrowed, that is, subject to repayment after an agreed period. For example, loans from friends or a bank, loans - everything that a person is obliged to repay.
Figurative meaning. Debt is a person's obligation to someone or something. Moreover, a person is not forced to fulfill this duty; an inner call prompts him to do just that. Usually in this sense the concept, the word “duty” is associated with patriotism, honor, etc.
Etymology of the word "debt"
There is no consensus regarding this word, and therefore linguists are hesitant to say for sure where the word “debt” came from. There are two most likely assumptions for the origin of the word discussed in this article:
It comes from the Gothic dialect, which has a similar word - dulgs, which means the same as the Russian "debt".
The word “debt” comes from the word “long” in Rus'. Usually, loans are taken out for a long time, and therefore they wait a long time, and therefore the borrowed amounts that are subject to repayment are called debts.
What is “debt” as a part of speech?
The Russian language has many parts of speech: adjective, verb, noun, adverb, numeral, pronoun, participle, gerund, as well as conjunctions, particles, interjections, prepositions.
To determine which part of speech the selected word belongs to, you should select a question for it. In this case, the appropriate question for the word “debt” is “what?” Thus, it is easy to guess that this is a noun.
What mistakes can be made in the word “debt”
The word discussed in this article is practically beyond doubt, because it consists of only four letters and only one syllable. However, the letter “g”, which is located at the very end of the word, is heard as “k” when pronounced. This can be demonstrated by the transcription of the word: [dolk].
To check a questionable letter, you should choose a word in which it will be clearly heard. If it is an unstressed vowel, then the test word must be one in which the sound in that position is stressed. If, as in this case, there is a “problematic” consonant, look for an option where there will be a vowel after it.
The letter “g,” which may be misspelled, can be easily checked by putting “debt” in the plural form: debts. Thus, it is correct to write the word discussed in this article with the letter “r” at the end.
Synonym
It often happens that a word should be replaced by another that is similar in meaning. Most often this is necessary when writing information material. For example, like the one in front of you now.
Replacing words with synonyms is necessary to make the text more expressive, interesting and in no way monotonous. Synonyms also help ensure that the information is presented in the most understandable way, and the word itself does not become boring as you read.
So, you already know that the word “debt” can be represented in two meanings. Therefore, depending on the context you need, use words that are appropriate in meaning. Synonyms for the word “debt” can be: loan, credit, favor, obligation, vocation, “tail”, duty, burden.
Antonym
Do you remember in Russian lessons you studied such a concept as antonyms? Can you now match it to the word discussed in this article?
If you have forgotten what an antonym is, no problem. Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. For example, white - black, weakness - strength, stupid - smart, cheerful - sad, run - stand, etc.
Does the word "debt" have the opposite meaning? In fact, it is quite difficult to choose this. There is no direct antonym for the word “debt”. But there are indirect ones: gift, bribe, gift, freedom.
Is that clearer?
What is debt in simple words? The article presents the most understandable definitions of the word being analyzed. However, they are taken from dictionaries, which means they can be somewhat tricky. Therefore, if you still do not understand what the word “debt” means, read this section.
So, the most important meaning of the word “debt” is obligation. But to what or to whom does a person owe? And how should this debt be repaid?
First, it is necessary to clarify that debt can be material and moral.
The first is everything that a person borrows and undertakes to give. Most often, in such cases there is some kind of agreement on a loan and subsequent repayment. It specifies the item or amount that is borrowed, the period for which it is lent, and possible interest (may be imposed on the due date or in case of failure to pay on time, although both options exist).
Such an agreement can be oral if people know each other well. Or in writing - a promissory note, a loan agreement. It is issued if the debt is taken from strangers, from a bank, or represents an amount generated in the event of, for example, a loss at cards.
The second is moral duty. There are several varieties of it:
Before people - respect the rights and freedom of others, do not interfere with their existence, do not harm them.
Before the state - to protect, protect and defend your country, your fatherland, to carry out your service with honor and dignity.
Before God - to fulfill God’s commandments, to be a pious Christian, to place above all else your moral and ethical duty to people and the country.
These moral duties often compete with each other, as a result of which a person is tormented by pangs of conscience. Ideally, one should try to combine the different meanings of the word “duty” into a single aspiration.
What kind of debt can there be?
What debt is has been covered in detail above. But it still remains unclear what it really is:
In front of people- public, matrimonial, card, gambling, filial, paternal, maternal, subsidiary, parental, family, medical, related, human, etc.
Before the state - civil, service, military, patriotic, soldier, national, knightly, etc.
In front of - moral, personal, moral, own, masculine, etc.
Before God - sacred, holy, Christian, religious, etc.
Why is debt payment red?
Have you ever heard the proverb “debt is worth paying”? What do you think it means?
It is quite possible that it is about the fact that borrowing any amount is good and very pleasant, because then it will come back to you. Who doesn't like getting money?! Even if it’s your own, even if it’s back...
However, every proverb, saying, saying of the Russian language carries a huge meaning, which has been accumulated and tested by many generations, and over time formed into a certain phrase. Based on this, it follows that in fact the proverb “debt is worth paying” must have a different, deeper meaning. Which one do you think?
This proverb expresses centuries-old folk wisdom about how important it is for a person to repay his debts on time. And these are not empty words, but a recommendation. It should be performed in order to avoid the negative consequences that will certainly overtake if a person does not pay off his debts on time.
Psychics, magicians and other representatives of all kinds of mystical teachings often use such a concept as karma. An unpaid debt that hangs both on the person himself and on his entire family makes a huge hole in his karma. And over time, a person or his descendants may develop some kind of disease, quite possibly fatal.
Why is this happening? The reason is quite simple. A person does not want to repay a debt because of his greed, stinginess, spiritual callousness and lack of honor. After all, if there is a real reason why it is not possible to pay off the debts (for example, there really is no money, he is sitting on the porch), he may ask to postpone the return date. In most cases, they will accommodate him or offer him another repayment option.
But it is still highly recommended not to delay repayment of the debt. After all, astrologers claim that every person needs to pay off all his debts (both spiritual - promises, and material - money) before next year.
This is what debt is and why it is red in payment.
Why is it better not to lend money to friends?
There are a huge number of proverbs with the word “debt”. But there is one of them that haunts many people. It says: “If you want to lose a friend, lend him a loan.” Why do they say this?
Everything is quite simple, and the answer, one might say, lies right on the surface. It is not advisable to lend money to acquaintances, friends, or relatives, because there is a very high probability that you will not get anything back. After all, you can demand them from a stranger, but it’s inconvenient to remind a friend or relative once again. It turns out that you will have to beg and beg for your own. Unpleasant situation.
It’s not for nothing that there is another proverb in the Russian language: “Lend to a friend, but take from an enemy.” That is, if your friend does not repay the debt, the relationship with him will deteriorate, and you will have to “knock out” your money from your enemy.
Cicero on duty - wisdom for centuries
Marcus Tullius Cicero, an ancient Roman philosopher, orator and politician, once said: “Only he lives freely who finds joy in doing his duty.” Stop reading and think for a moment about the meaning of these words.
Perhaps the main idea that Cicero sought to convey to his fellow citizens and future descendants is that a person can get true pleasure from life only by bringing joy to others.
This does not mean at all that he should infringe on himself in everything or go against his principles for the sake of the desires of another person. There is such a thing as “the good of all mankind.” It implies activities and behavior that will help the inhabitants of the whole Earth become better, stronger, happier and richer spiritually.
This is what other teachings teach people. Not only the divine commandments presented in the Bible, but also the legal law also calls for living not for oneself, killing, robbing, indulging base desires, but for others. Remember, not a single rich man who received everything he wanted from life remained for centuries. Over time they forgot about him. And great scientists, military or political figures, writers, actors, as well as many other people who lived not only for themselves, but also for others, are still held in high esteem by citizens. Many have even been canonized as saints; they are the ones people turn to in difficult moments in life, asking for help and blessings.
So you have learned what the word “debt” means, and also why it is so important to repay debts on time. Now you will not only be able to use the word correctly, but you will also begin to live better. After all, you have learned wisdom carried through the centuries.
In modern society you can often hear the word “debt”. But not everyone knows its true concept and purpose. In the article we will consider the essence of debt, which aspects science proposes to distinguish in it. We will also understand what professional duty and responsibility to the Motherland are.
Debt is usually called an obligation voluntarily accepted by a person, which comes “from the heart.” If a person has a sense of duty, then she is respected in society and praised. It is what allows people to do great things.
Debt is a multifaceted concept. So, in every area of life it has its own characteristics. For example, debt can be thought of as a financial obligation between people. In this case, an essence appears that obliges a person to give borrowed funds, make deals and conduct business negotiations. Such obligations are usually formalized in writing and have legal force.
What aspects does science suggest to distinguish in debt? There are two sides considered here: social and moral duty, which will be discussed below. Debt can also be considered an obligation of a group of people. For example, in front of other subjects or God.
The fulfillment of duty is controlled, on the one hand, by conscience and, on the other hand, by public opinion.
Moral duty
Most often, the concept of duty is considered as a person’s moral obligation. That is, when he accepts the cultural norms of society and sets himself the task of fulfilling them.
What is These are obligations that a person imposes on himself without outside help or coercion. This happens out of inner motivation, voluntarily and selflessly.
Performance moral duty considered the most difficult task. After all, a person does not know the specific rules for its implementation. He constantly faces internal contradictions, doubts and conflicts. There is also the usual fear that everyone has. Overcoming all obstacles allows a person to take deliberate and conscious actions.
Public debt
Throughout his life, a person is connected by social relations with other people. First, this interaction manifests itself in the family, then in kindergarten, school, higher education institution, and so on. This means that a person has responsibilities to every person around him, and is also responsible for his actions.
One of the aspects that science suggests distinguishing between debt is public debt. It is viewed as an objective duty, that is, something that a person can perform. For example, responsibilities at work, at home. This category also includes duty to nature and oneself.
Fulfilling public duty allows the entire society to develop. Relations between people are controlled by legislation, which acts as coercion in cases of failure by a person to fulfill his duty.
Professional duty
This is a category of ethics, and is manifested in a person’s attitude towards his work. The feeling of such duty is formed on the basis of the need to reconcile the needs of the individual and social responsibilities. That is, on the one hand, a person who seeks to earn money to satisfy his needs, and on the other, work, the implementation of which is necessary for the development of society.
Professional duty presupposes that a person will use all his opportunities for the development of a city or country. To do this, a person must constantly improve his skills and abilities, observe traditions and expand his connections in society.
If a person has professional duty, then he will definitely achieve high professional growth.
Patriotic duty
When a person thinks about his duty to his homeland, he compares the concepts of “state” and “homeland”. People usually maintain formal relations with the state, which are regulated legal acts and establish the order of everything that happens. In this case, the person is obliged to pay taxes and comply with established requirements. The government apparatus, in turn, also assumes the obligations that are spelled out in the constitution.
The homeland acts as the territory in which a person grows, with all the features and qualities of its nature. Fulfilling a calling to the Motherland is part of a moral obligation - one of the sides that science suggests distinguishing in duty. In this case, a person feels the need to protect and preserve his native lands, to take actions to preserve nature.
We can say that the concept of debt is subjective for each person. Much depends on upbringing and the qualities instilled in childhood. For example, some people consider it unnecessary to follow the law, while others consider it their duty to attend church on Sundays and participate in charity.
DUTY
(Greek deon; Latin officiuum, obligatio; German Pflicht; English duty, obligation; French devoir, obligation; Italian devere) - one of the fundamental concepts of ethics, which means morally reasoned compulsion to act; moral, acting as a subjective principle of behavior. D. embodies the imperativeness of morality. The actions themselves, since they are motivated by D., are called duties; “” talks about what (what action) is being performed, and the concept of D. is about why it is being done: serving the fatherland, keeping promises, taking care of children are duties, doing this on moral grounds is D. The action is performed on moral grounds then when it is committed not because of considerations external to it (by order, for the sake of benefit, because of inclination, etc.), but on the basis that it itself contains a moral one, is personally significant for the subject .
Rus. "D." also has a second one (what is borrowed and needs to be returned, mainly money). The meaning of D., in the sense of the relationship between the lender and the debtor, allows us to reveal the historical roots and socio-communicative of its moral significance. By at least, partly “in the law of debt lies a hotbed of the world of moral concepts “”, “”, “debt”, “the sacredness of duty” (F. Nietzsche). Debentures became a prototype of obligations, the fulfillment of which is unconditional. We are talking about such unconditionality that cannot be reliably guaranteed externally. This also requires coercion, which imposes an obligation in relation to the obligation itself, which is the meaning of moral D.
The beginning of the theoretical understanding of D. goes back to the Stoic school, to the identification of two sections in human behavior proposed by Zeno of Kition: the strictly moral and the proper. Proper (nature-conforming) actions are morally due, it; The morally proper itself in this case appears as actions that are unnatural. This theoretical construction made it possible to supplement the rational-pragmatic validity of actions with a rational-moral justification and interpret them as D., duties. Cicero transformed the doctrine of morality in such a way that two methods of motivating behavior were interpreted as two different stages of moral behavior. His book “On Responsibilities”, both content-wise and terminologically, became a kind of canon of philosophical and cultural discussions about D. up to I. Kant.
Ambrosius of Milan borrowed Cicero's teaching on D. and transferred it to medieval soil. The new concept of justice is conceptualized within the framework of the concept of natural law. D. Hume writes that “we have no other motive to fulfill promises than duty.” According to T. Hobbes, just as it is impossible if it contradicts what he previously asserted, so it is also socially impossible if a person arbitrarily destroys what he previously voluntarily did; what in scholastic disputes is called absurdity, in worldly disputes is called injustice, illegality, violation of agreement. Contractual agreement, according to which the agreement procedure itself imposes an obligation on a person in relation to the obligations of the agreement, is quite logically derived from the social-contractual theory of society and state -va, but in this theory itself, as it was embodied in the work of philosophers of the New Age, who still thought ontologically and full of the pathos of truth and goodness, was only outlined in general outline. The contract version of D. has become the basis of an independent theory today within the framework of the so-called. discursive ethics (K.O. Apel, J. Habermas).
The most developed theory of D. was proposed by Kant.
Since, Kant believes, it appears in the form of a categorical imperative, an unconditional compulsion to act, then the only subjective basis thanks to which it acquires effectiveness and becomes a human moral law is D. D. is compulsion to act by a moral law. D. is given only in correlation and opposition with inclinations. D. does not abolish other maxims, which can all be interpreted as maxims of selfishness, he only weighs them against the viewpoint. compliance with the criterion of general validity and, in the case of a positive result, acts as their moral sanction, which is a complement and strengthening of these. The procedure for such weighing comes down to a thought experiment, during which a person, as a rational being, must answer for himself whether he would have done the corresponding thing even if he had no benefit from doing it or if it was contrary to his inclinations. According to Kant, only such an act can be recognized as moral, which is not just consistent with law, but is performed for the sake of law: “Duty is the necessity of an act out of respect for the law.” Subsequent reflections on D. were a form of softening Kant's ethical rigorism (in the schools of neo-Kantianism) or his criticism (in almost all subsequent original ethical systems).
Modern, which is usually called post-classical, in the ethical aspect is generally characterized by anti-normativism. This is revealed, in particular, in the criticism of the imperative form of morality, the decline in the value status of morality and its shift to the periphery of moral life. The concept of D., him and in particular, remains for philosophy. ethics is an open problem.
Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .
category of ethics in which morals are expressed. task dept. individual, group of persons, class, people in specific social conditions and situations, becoming for them an internally accepted obligation (in this D. differs from the more abstract concept of the proper, which embraces the area in general of all requirements imposed on people in the form of norms). In the history of morals and the consciousness of mankind, D. has been interpreted differently, in accordance with the general social or class understanding of the responsibilities lying on a person in a given era; it has always been associated with specific problems of the time and a given society. In its own way, universally human. The content of the concept of D. includes the implementation of a number of historically developed “simple human rules. dormitories." As for the nature of D., this has always been an arena for the clash of various schools and directions of philosophies. ethics. The foundations of D. were associated with one form or another of interpretation of morals. necessity (fulfillment of divine commands, cosmic or otherworldly laws, official or unofficial society institutions, self-realization internal personality potentials and T. d.). In Marxist ethics, moral D. is considered as a specification general requirements morality that has a historical origin, in relation to the circumstances that have arisen, the position, abilities and capabilities of a person, which determine the extent of his personal responsibility and constitute the content of his motives and conscience. In D., T. O., expresses morals. the specificity of the social and ideological position of the individual in relation to the established society. situation, conflict and alignment of class forces and T. P., internal beliefs and ways to implement them.
In communist morality, human freedom is conceptualized primarily in terms of the struggle to eliminate exploitation and build socialism and communism.
Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .
acting as an internal experience, the compulsion to act in accordance with the needs emanating from ethical values, and to build one’s own life in accordance with these requirements. According to Fichte, for whom everything is “material for the fulfillment of duty,” there is only one thing—duty. The only belief is to do joyfully and impartially what duty dictates in any case, without giving in to doubts or thoughts about the consequences.
Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .
For most modern schools. bourgeois ethics, especially pragmatism, existentialism, hedonism are characterized by complete ethical. , reaching the point of denial D. “The sense of duty,” writes T. W. Smith, “is the last silent witness of the past, and the sooner we overcome and forget it, the better” (“Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences,” v. 5– 6, N.Y., 1950, p. 294). Various schools of positivist ethics reduce the problem of D. to its logic. analysis, to clarify the relationship between judgments of fact and obligation; they are completely indifferent to the facts. human content behavior. So, representatives of the school of ethics. intuitionism prove that D. is self-evident, not deducible, not based on social needs, and ahistorical. Another school in modern bourgeois ethics - - asserts that the feeling of D. is only an expression of our inclination, psychological. "settings"; it does not reflect any objective content. The judgments in which D. is formulated are unfounded, arbitrary and even meaningless. At the same time, bourgeois. morality is preserved and used to strengthen the bourgeoisie. orders of religions. morality with its concept of D. before God. Yes, modern Protestant proves that D. is absolute, because dictated by a super-intelligent authority - God and at the same time relative, because true only for a given person and only at a given time and cannot be a universal norm for all people. Eclectically combining absolutism, characteristic of intuitionists, and elements of relativism, characteristic of emotivists, Protestant theologians substantiate the “superreasonableness” of bourgeois norms. morality and justify the moral unprincipledness of the bourgeoisie. A significant contribution to the development of D. was made by Russians. revolutionary democrats. Taking D. out of the urgent needs of the revolutionaries. fight for the interests of the people. the masses against serfdom and autocracy, they at the same time saw in D. an expression of internal. human needs and aspirations. “...It is not the one who can be called a truly moral person,” wrote N.A. Dobrolyubov, “who only endures the dictates of duty over himself, like some kind of heavy yoke, like “moral chains,” namely, the one who cares to drain the demands of duty with the needs of his inner being, who tries to process them into his own flesh and blood by the internal process of self-awareness and self-development so that they not only become instinctively necessary, but also deliver the inner" (Elected philosophical works, vol. 1, 1948, p. 213).
The consciousness and sense of justice in front of society, fostered by the Communist Party, is one of the most important moral forces motivating owls. people to work conscientiously for the good of the people. The consciousness of D. of the people is manifested in the movement for communist. labor, in the struggle for technical adv. x-va, for the further flourishing of culture and well-being of the people. As we successfully move towards communism and outgrow socialism. statehood in society. communist self-government, consciousness and feeling of D. will play an increasingly important role in the behavior of members of society. In communist in society people will fulfill their morals. duties consciously and habitually.
Lit.: Marx K. and Engels F., German Ideology, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 3, p. 235–36; Lenin V.I., State and Revolution, Works, 4th ed., vol. 25, ch. 5; him, Tasks of Youth Unions, ibid., vol. 31; Program of the CPSU, M., 1961; Kalinin M.I., On communist education and military duty, M., 1958; Glushchenko M. G., Social debt of the Soviet man, Kyiv, 1953 (Author's abstract of candidate's thesis); Kon I. S., Marxist and the problem of debt, “Questions of Philosophy”, 1954, No. 3; Shishkin A., Fundamentals of communist morality, M., 1955, p. 144–99; by him, From the history of ethical teachings, M., 1959 (see Index); Podberezin I.M., Motives of duty and moral responsibility in the assessment of actions by schoolchildren, "Uch. zap. North Ossetian State Pedagogical Institute", Ordzhonikidze, 1956, vol. 20; Morozov V.I., The problem of military duty in Marxist ethics, M., 1956 (Author's abstract of candidate's dissertation); Pazmustov B. A., The problem of debt in the ethics of M. G. Chernyshevsky and N. A. Dobrolyubov, "Proceedings of Voronezh University", 1957, v. 60, no. 1; Drobnitsky O. G., On the question of the category of debt in Marxist ethics, "Philosophical Sciences", 1960, No. 3; Kant I., Critique of Practical Reason, trans. , St. Petersburg, 1897, § 7–8; Smiles S., Dolg, St. Petersburg, 1904; Guyot J.M., Morality without obligation and without sanction, trans. from French, M., 1923; Golbach P.A., System of Nature, trans. [from French], M., 1940; Wendt H., Die sittliche Pflicht, Gött., 1916; Ross W. D., The right and the good, Oxf., 1930; Ayer A. J., Philosophical essays, L.–N. Y., 1954.
O. Drobnitsky, V. Morozov. Moscow.
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Philosophical Encyclopedia. In 5 volumes - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F. V. Konstantinov. 1960-1970 .
DEBT (Greek δέον, Latin officium, obligatio; German Pflicht; English duty, obligation; French devoir, obligation; Italian dovere) is one of the fundamental concepts of ethics, which means a morally reasoned compulsion to act, moral necessity, fixed as a subjective principle of behavior. Duty expresses the imperative form of morality. The actions themselves, because they are motivated by duty, are called duties.
In addition to “obligation,” the Russian word “debt” also means “that which is borrowed” (ch. o. monetary debt). The semantics of the word, associated with the relationship between lender and debtor, makes it possible to reveal the historical roots and socio-communicative context of its moral meaning. As F. Nietzsche pointed out, “in the law of debt lies the seedbed of the world of moral concepts “guilt”, “conscience”, “debt”, “sacredness of duty”” (“On the Genealogy of Morality”, 2, 6.-Works in 2 vols. , vol. 2. M., 1990, p. 445). In a complex, unusually branched and subordinated network of obligations that develop into certain ones, there are obligations that perform the role of load-bearing structures within the latter. Remaining, like all obligations, voluntary, they act as subject to unconditional implementation (within the framework of property relations, in particular, these are obligations associated with a loan, credit). However, the required unconditionality of their execution cannot be reliably guaranteed externally. This also requires internal compulsion, imposing an obligation in relation to the obligation itself, which is the meaning of moral duty.
The beginning of the theoretical understanding of duty goes back to the Stoic school, to the identification of two sections in human behavior proposed by Zeno of Citius: the actual moral κατορ-Οωμα and the proper καβηκον. In ancient Greek, correct (proper) actions were denoted by a number of words, including δέον (literally: forcible entanglement); from him Bentham derived deontology to denote the doctrine of duty; this word described state and military duties, correct, timely actions. In its actual moral meaning, it is first found in two statements of Democritus; later such usage became frequent. In the 1st book of Plato’s Republic, Thrasymachus, seeking from Socrates what it is, says: “Don’t even think about telling me that this is a must...” (336d); in the Phaedo it is stated that “everything is connected and held together by what is good and proper” (99c). Aristotle in “Nicomachean Ethics”, emphasizing the enormous impact of knowledge on, notes: “And like arrows, seeing the target in front of us, will we not rather achieve what we should?” (1094a); he also qualifies the middle as a matter of course (1121b; 1123a). Through the word δέον “the thought of what should be as such first acquired linguistic expression” (Schmidt, . 345). Ancient authors often also used the participle προδηκον (possible translation suitable) to characterize life situations and actions worthy of praise. Similar is the word “καΰήκον”, introduced as a new term (a specific designation of debt) by the Stoics, who developed a doctrine that made it possible to move on to the study of duty as an ethical concept.
According to the first Stoics, good is, evil is vice, everything else is indifferent. However, in the sphere of indifference, preferred and avoided objects are distinguished: everything that contributes to a person’s life in its physical and social dimensions is preferred (health, strength, wealth, parents, beauty, etc.), everything opposite is avoided. This was done according to different criteria: in the first case, according to the ethical criterion of self-sufficiency, which makes it possible to highlight what is morally due in behavior; in the second, according to the pragmatic criterion of natural expediency, which identifies the class of appropriate actions. Directed towards preferred things, appropriate actions are appropriate from the point of view of the preservation and reproduction of life and can be justified. “According to the school tradition, Zeno derived this concept from κα-βήκω (I impose): “proper” is what is “imposed” by nature” (Stolyarov A. A., p. 184). Proper actions are ethically neutral and cannot influence human virtue. However, this does not mean that they themselves do not depend in any way on the moral quality of a person. The extent to which proper action depends on proper action remains an open question. In any case, there is no doubt that we are talking about two dimensions (two points of view) of the same reality: a person is found not in some special set of actions, existing along with or independently of proper actions, but in a special internal relationship to the latter. Proper (nature-conforming) actions are the subject area of the morally due, its matter; The morally proper itself in this case appears as their principle, an unnatural form. This theoretical construction made it possible to supplement the rational-pragmatic validity of actions with a rational-moral justification and interpret them as a duty and responsibility. The Stoic “κατόρθωμα” expresses the universe; what seems unreasonable from the point of view of the human mind turns out to be reasonable according to the criteria of the cosmic mind. Representatives of the Middle Stoa, in their understanding of what was morally proper, retreated from the dogmatic consistency and normative rigor of the founders of the school and strengthened their eudaimonic teleologism. The indifferent, which is on the other side of good and evil, was placed between them. Cicero translated the Stoic “καΰηκον” into Latin as “officium” (etymologically goes back to opificium - production, work). His book “On Duties” (De officiis) both in content and terminology became a kind of canon of philosophical and cultural discussions about duty right up to Kant. Cicero transformed the doctrine of duty in such a way that two methods of motivating behavior were interpreted as two different stages of moral behavior. He divides duties into “perfect” and “ordinary” or “average”. He calls the “perfect” obligation direct and correlates it with “κατόρθωμα”, and identifies the “ordinary” with “katekon”; the first can only be achieved by a sage, the second concerns all people and is widely used (“On Duties”, I, 8; 111, 14). This formulation of the question opened up the possibility of moral qualification of the variety of specific duties of a person arising from public, private, domestic, judicial and other aspects of his life, which is what Cicero does in his book. Changes in the way of justifying duties were associated with a change in the normative ideal: the Stoic, proud of its autarky, was replaced by a worthy citizen (vir bonus).
Cicero's teaching on duty was borrowed by Ambrose of Milan, who transferred it to medieval soil; the latter’s work “On the duties of clergy” (De fficiis ministorum) was a Christianized adaptation of “On the duties.” Ambrose understands the highest good, in whose service duties are, as godlikeness and transfers it to the other world. He concretizes the division of duties into perfect (“officia perfecta”) and imperfect, average (“officia media”) using the example of the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount. The perfect duties, or duties in the narrow, proper sense of the word, are the Ten Commandments, and the imperfect (duties in the broad sense of the word) are works of mercy. The first are aimed at overcoming sins, correcting shortcomings, the second are aimed at acquiring merit, improvement; the former clearly indicate actions to be performed or prohibited, the latter leave a lot of scope for the individual; the former are strictly prescribed (praecepta), the latter are only recommended (consüia evangelica). The Stoic doctrine of duty, thanks to this two-stage scheme, was adapted to the religious-Christian system; its teleological basis not only did not disappear, but in a certain sense was strengthened. The objective-teleological justification of duty received a methodically systematized design from Thomas Aquinas, who substantiated duties within the logic of a hypothetical imperative, which is typical for eudaimonistically oriented ethics: “If you want to achieve goal A, you must perform actions a, b...” But since The goal, since we are talking about God and the divine structure of the world, is given necessarily, then all actions aimed at achieving it are necessary, which become obligations, duty. The opposition to the teleological justification of duty was its theological justification (Augustine, Duns Scotus, Occam), according to which the source of norms and duties is the unfettered God. The advantage of this position was that it directly indicated duty, but it is fraught with a complete relativization of moral norms. Occam, for example, in theological voluntarism went so far as to assert that God is not bound even by the first two commandments; It doesn’t hurt to assume that God could have prescribed not to himself, but the exact opposite - . This approach undermined the possibility of a rationally based doctrine of duty.
In modern European philosophy, the ideas of free expression of will and voluntary self-obligation of individuals, taking into account the general interest that lies beyond individual inclinations (see Social Contract), formed the basis of the natural legal justification of duty. Hume points out that “we have no other motives that would induce us to fulfill promises than a sense of duty” (On Morals, 2, § 5.-Works in 2t., vol. l. M., 1966, p. 674 ); Hobbes makes a comparison: just as a dispute is impossible if a person contradicts what he previously asserted, so social life is impossible if a person arbitrarily destroys what he previously voluntarily did; what in scholastic disputes is called absurdity, in worldly disputes is called injustice, illegality, violation of duty. The contractual version of duty, according to which the very procedure of an honest agreement imposes on a person an obligation in relation to the obligations stated in the agreement, is quite logically derived from the social-contractual theory of society and the state. In the works of philosophers of the New Age, who still thought ontologically and were full of the pathos of truth and goodness, this version was only outlined in general terms. It has become the basis of an independent theory today within the framework of the so-called. discursive ethics (K.-O. Apel, J. Habermas), which happened after deontology tried to completely clear itself of eudaimonic teleologism and passed the highest point of development in Kant’s ethics.
Kant connects the specificity of morality with the concept of duty: moral acts in the form of a categorical imperative, duty as its subjective support. The moral law is the law of pure reason. However, man is an imperfect rational being, because his will is also influenced by inclinations (feelings, needs, interests, etc.), and for him the moral law appears in the form of a categorical imperative, that is, unconditional compulsion to act. Accordingly, the only subjective basis due to which the moral law acquires effectiveness and becomes a human moral law is duty. It is compulsion to act by moral law; debt and are essentially the same thing. Duty takes into account only the maxims of being a requirement of universal legislation, as evidenced by the first formulation of the categorical imperative. In reality, there are no human actions whose subjective principle would be exclusively duty, for the will, since it is human, cannot be free from the influence of inclinations that give concreteness and individuality to the action. Therefore, duty is given only in correlation and opposition to inclinations. Duty does not cancel other maxims, which can all be interpreted as maxims of selfishness, it only weighs them from the point of view of compliance with the criterion of general validity and, in the case of a positive outcome, acts as their moral sanction, addition and strengthening of these maxims. The procedure for such weighing comes down to a thought experiment in which a person, as a rational being, must answer the question whether he would also perform the corresponding act if he had no benefit from doing it or if it even contradicted his inclinations. According to Kant, only an act that is not simply consistent with duty, but is performed for the sake of duty, can be recognized as moral. Kant's duty is formal - it imposes the form of law on the maxim of the will. But this form is not completely empty, it is meaningful: the test of a maxim from the point of view of its being a universal and generally valid requirement means the requirement to honor a rational being as rational, that is, to honor (which in Kant’s language is synonymous with reasonableness) in each individual incarnation. The second formulation of the categorical imperative is precisely the duty to treat humanity (humanity) in the person of each individual as an end and never treat it only as a means. Although duty is completely confined to the moral law, it is not an external coercive authority or an authorized representative of such an authority in the individual, as stated in the third formulation of the categorical imperative, which considers the moral law as the autonomy of the will. According to Kant, “everyone understood that man is bound by his duty to the law, but did not realize that he is subject only to his own and nevertheless universal legislation” (Works in 6 vols., vol. 4 (1). M., 1965, p. 274). Duty is a moral law revealed as human. How the law in itself can directly determine the basis of the will, the motive, is, according to Kant, a problem insoluble for the human mind. It is only possible to trace how this motive operates in the human soul. The mechanism of duty is respect for the moral law and dignity of a person, since he has autonomy of will and creates this law from himself. Respect for the moral law is a moral feeling; it does not precede the moral law and does not follow from it, it means that the moral law itself is the motive by virtue of which it is practiced. The concept of “respect”, attached to two other concepts - “necessity of action” and “law”, gives duty, according to Kant, as “the necessity of action out of respect for the law” (ibid., p. 236). Originality, strengths and weak sides Kant's justification for duty is that it overturned traditional ideas about the relationship between being and obligation. At least in human experience, duty, according to Kant, is primordial and fundamental. In general philosophical terms, it preserves with being (its origins go to the noumenal world, in the final results through God it is connected with happiness), but this connection is problematic, is formulated in the subjunctive mood and is preserved only for the sake of the logical integrity of the system.
I. G. Fichte sought to free himself from this “shortcoming,” substantiating the absolute independence of morality from anything other than the Self; he developed a system of ethical idealism, in which the moral is seen as an endless emancipation, and the world as the embodiment of unconditional duty. Fichte's deontology was a kind of caricature of Kant's doctrine of duty; Kant did not recognize himself in him; the late Fichte himself also retreated from the hypertrophied voluntarism of the early period. Subsequent reflections on duty were a form of softening of Kant's ethical rigorism (in the schools of neo-Kantianism) or of his criticism (in almost all subsequent original ethical systems).
According to Schopenhauer, Kant's teaching on duty is logically erroneous: to derive duty from the absolute necessity of the moral law means to anticipate the foundations, and to use the concept of unconditional obligation means to fall into definitions. He believes that Kant borrowed the imperative form of morality from theological ethics and that is why he was forced to retroactively turn to the postulates of the immortality of the soul and the existence of God. Schopenhauer's main point is that for understanding the metaphysical, extending ethical significance of an act, it is completely unimportant that morality should have the form of command and obedience, law and obligation.
Modern philosophy in the ethical aspect is generally characterized by anti-normativism. This is revealed, in particular, in the criticism of the imperative form of morality, the reduction of the value status of duty and its shift to the periphery of moral life. Communist ethics (K. Marx, F. Engels) saw in the imperativeness of morality an expression of its alienation from real individuals, believing that concrete people in the form of communist brotherhood remove their abstract community, set by transpersonal norms. F. Nietzsche believed that a person is destroyed when he acts without pleasure, like an automaton of “duty”, that “a people goes to destruction if it confuses its duty with the concept of duty in general” (“Antichrist”, § 11.-Op. in 2t., vol. 2. M., 1990, p. 639); Nietzschean does not accept the imperativeness of morality; he has no other duty than his own will to power. Axiological ethics (M. Scheler, G. Rainer, etc.) sees the basis of moral norms in the existence of values, its central concept is moral, perception (feeling) of values, duty here appears as a moment of volitional striving, predetermined by the ontological order of the values themselves. Metaethics (J. Moore, E. Ayer, etc.), based on the fact that there is no logically justified transition from sentences with the connective “is” to sentences with the connective “should,” asserted the normative neutrality of philosophical ethics; it denied the concept of duty scientific sanction. In a number of ethical teachings (Spencer, sociological concepts, Soviet, etc.), duty is considered in its everyday meaning as a person’s subordination to society, responsibilities, a way of socialization, disciplining an individual, and integration into society. Recognizing the value of post-Kantian interpretations of duty in their critical part, it should be noted that in the positive part they do not contain new ideas, except for the criticism of the unconditional imperativeness of morality itself.
Lit.: Fragments of the Early Stoics, trans. And