DUTIES

Duty

-is the oughtness in man’s doing or omitting an act, and it’s

respecting the rights of God and other men.
-It is not the same as moral obligation, according to
Thomistic philosophers, for the latter term refers only to
man’s responsibility to himself.

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 DUTIES
Duty is the correlative of right. This is to say :

1. Without duty there is no right.

2. Concerning the same person, duty comes before right;
concerning other persons, right comes before duty (this means I
must first think of the rights of others before I should expect them
to do their duties towards me).
3. Both duties and rights stem from man’s rational nature and
therefore from the natural law or its author, God. Both enhance
man’s stature, and both are vital to a society’s growth and
strength.
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 DUTIES
Kinds of Duties

1. Natural and Acquired

Natural Duties are those that come from the very nature of man.
Acquired duties are those that come from one’s social status of
membership in an established temporal society such as the state
of the Church, also known as positive duties.

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2. Perfect and Imperfect

Perfect duties are those called for by a strict justice.

Imperfect duties are those called by non-judicial considerations
such as pity and gratitude.

3. Affirmative and Negative

Affirmative duties are those that a person must do.

Negative duties are those that a person must omit or refrain from
doing.

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 DUTIES

EXEMPTION FROM DUTY

Excuse from the performance of duty will depend on two things

1. The kind of duty

2. The kind of necessity

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 DUTIES
Necessity- means the condition in which one has to do a duty in
the face of hardship or danger. It has three degrees:

1. Common or ordinary necessity - is that in which the selection is

between duty and a minimal difficulty.
2. Grave necessity - is that in which the selection is between duty
and a serious hardship such as loss of money, position, health and
reputation.
3. Extreme necessity - is that in which the selection is between
duty and death or something equivalent to death.

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 DUTIES
Principles on Extreme from Duty

1. Common or ordinary necessity never excuses anybody from

duty.
- every duty takes for granted some difficulty, and if every
slight difficulty be excusable, then no duty would ever be done.
2. Not even extreme necessity is exempted from negative natural duty.
- the negative law, from which the negative natural duty proceeds
forbids an act because such act is intrinsically wrong.

3. Extreme or grave necessity excuses action on affirmative duties

whether natural or applied.

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RIGHTS

What is Right?
Objectively right is anything that is just or which ought to be.

Subjectively, it is a person’s moral power to do, to refrain from doing

to have, and to compel others to give him something.

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 RIGHTS
KINDS OF RIGHT
1. Natural and Acquired

Natural Rights are those founded on the nature of man.

Acquired or Passive are those founded on man’s status & work or

on others’ exertions for him.

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 RIGHTS
Acquired rights may be:
a. Divine – these are rights of God by virtue of His being Creator &
Supreme Being.

b. Human – these are rights of man as founded on human positive law

and may be.
1. Ecclesiastical – rights acquired through church membership.
2. Civil - rights acquired through membership in the state.

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 RIGHTS
2 . Alienable & Unalienable

Alienable Rights are those that may be given up.

Inalienable Rights are those cannot be given up.

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 RIGHTS

3. Perfect & Imperfect

Perfect Rights are those founded on strict justice.

Imperfect Rights are non-juridical & based on claims such as gratitude.

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 RIGHTS
Properties of Rights

1. Coaction – is that property which gives to right its compelling

power & effectively, Usually provided by civil laws.

2. Limitation – is that property that draws the line between two

different persons, one may not exercise his right if it would mean
violating the right of the other.

3. Collision – Is the apparent disagreement between two rights, the

proper choice follows the same pattern as the one for duties.

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 RIGHTS
Most Important Human Rights
The United Nations on December 10, 1948 proclaimed “The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
1. Right to life, liberty and security of person
2. Right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
3. Right to freedom of thought, conscience & religion.

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 RIGHTS
4. Right to property(this is a natural right, it can be given up
voluntary as nuns & priest. Communism denies this right.) .
5. Right to work, to free choice employment, to just and favorable
conditions of work, & the protection against unemployment, also the
right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interest.
6. Right to marry and have children(this is a perfect right).
7. Right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family.
8. Right to rest and leisure, including reasonable imitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay.

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 RIGHTS
9. Right to equality and equal protection before the law.
10. Right to education.
11. Right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community.
12. Right to freedom of expressions, this means that freedom of speech, of
the press, academic freedom.
13. Right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
14. Right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through
freely chosen representatives.
15. Right to move around the state and to leave any country, including his
own, and to return to it.

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