Toward a Cultural Theory of Duties

Abstract

This article puts forward a number of propositions as a step toward a cultural theory of duties. The concept of ‘duty’ is set up in contrast to that of ‘rights’, in that while the former is owed to others, the latter are demanded of others. We believe that the psychology of duty has been neglected. Duties are associated with important continuities in social life, and to elaborate this point we introduce the concept of carriers, symbolic devices on which people hang cultural elements they want to maintain. Duties, we propose, have their origins in certain perennial social psychological features of social life, predating the origins of writing and formal law and government. Thus unformalized (normative) duties pre-date black-letter law duties, the latter tending to be installed as the formal expression of the former. The same conduct, in the sense of publicly observable actions, can often be described either as the implementation of a right, or as the fulfillment of a duty, depending on the cultural context. Where the line is drawn between normative and black-letter duties also varies across cultures. We argue that at any time, normative duties are closer to societal ideals than are black-letter duties. Finally, we propose that after achieving equal rights in black-letter law, minorities should shift their focus to the correlative duties that arise from their change in moral status. At the same time this entails that the majority fulfills its duty to implement the minorities’ rights.