DUTY, John Paul Vemo S.

DUTY: The concept of duty plays a vital role in many ethical theories.
Duty is an indispensable part of life. 'Duty' is a technical term in
ethics and the rules for its use vary from writer to another.
A person's duties are the things he or she is expected to do by virtue
of having taken a job or assumed some definite office. Ordinary duties
are tasks or assignments for which a man becomes responsible as a
result of holding a particular job or office. An important feature of
duties is that they provide some justifying reason for action.
There are number of concepts related to duty. Among these are the
concepts of obligation, right, permission and prohibition. According
to most modern use, obligation and duty are taken to be coextensive,
if not identical. Hence, to have a duty to do something is the same as
to have an obligation to do it. The narrower view concerning duty is
that, duties must result from roles, namely, from status, occupation
or position. The duty arises from the role, for example, parents to
their children, and teacher to the students.
Duty goes hand in hand with rights and is an essential feature of any
society. There are duties attached to every social role within a
society and a society becomes unviable when a significant section of
its members fail to fulfill their duties adequately or refuse to do
so. Fulfillment of one's duty brings happiness to one's life and
ensures the smooth functioning of the society at large.
There are different kinds of duties like Positive and Negative duties;
perfect and imperfect duties; and Subjective and Objective duties. The
positive duties are concern what we are required to do, for example,
to duties to help others and to develop our talents. While negative
duties are concern what we are required to refrain from doing, for
example, the duties not to lie and not to kill.
The distinction between perfect and imperfect duties is attributed to
Immanuel Kant. He said that perfect duty allows no exception in the
interest of inclination. Perfect duties are usually associated with
negative, stringent duties, while imperfect duties are associated with
positive, less stringent duties. Subjective duty is that which one
sincerely takes to be one's duty, while objective duty is that which
is actually required by duty.