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Obligation

Obligations are constraints, they limit our freedom. We can choose however, to freely act under obligations. Obligation exists when there is a choice to do what is morally good and what is morally unacceptable.

Obligation and Morality

An obligation is a contract between us and the thing we are obligated to. Should we breach that contract, we are then subject to blame. When we enter in to an obligation, conscious beings generally do not think about the guilt that we would experience is we do not fulfill our obligation, instead we think about how we can go about fulfilling our obligation. Rationalist argue that we respond in this way because we have a reason to fulfill our obligation.


 * 1) Owens, David (2012-09-20). Obligation. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691500.001.0001/acprof-9780199691500-chapter-4. ISBN  9780191744938.

The sanction theory is the idea that our obligation is really to the pressures we feel by society and not necessarily to a singular thing or person. The pressure we feel, adds to the reason we have to fulfill the obligation, the rationalist argument, intensifying our desire to fulfill our obligations. The sanction theory states that there needs to be a sanction, something that gives an obligation power, in order for the obligation to seem like a moral duty.


 * 1) Owens, David (2012-09-20). Obligation. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691500.001.0001/acprof-9780199691500-chapter-4. ISBN  9780191744938.

Sociological View of Obligation v. Philosophical View of Obligation[edit]
Sociologists believe that obligations force people to act in ways that society deems acceptable. Every society has their own way of governing, they expect their citizens to behave in a particular manner. Not only do the citizens have to oblige to the societal norms, they want to, in order to assimilate to society. Philosophers on the other hand, argue that rational beings have moral duties, we make a choice to either fulfill these moral duties or disregard them. In essence, we have a moral responsibility to fulfill our obligations. Sociologists believe that an obligation is an objective force, philosophers however, believe obligations are moral imperatives.


 * 1) Ogien, Albert (2016-12-01). "Obligation and Impersonality: Wittgenstein and the Nature of the Social". Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 46 (6): 604–623. doi:10.1177/0048393116649970. ISSN 0048-3931.