ABSTRACT
This chapter takes up the problem with the claim that Third World debt ought to be paid. In the discussion of duty, Collingwood adds an important caveat to the principle that 'ought' implies 'can': Debtors must try hard to pay off their debts before we declare the debts unpayable. The temptation to confuse debt and duty, can work to replace honest perplexity with erroneous conviction. Many of those who spoke of Third World debt were of the firm opinion that it was unpayable; few would accuse them of failing to understand the word 'debt'. An examination of the use and etymology of 'debt' has revealed that the term is not only equivocal, its meaning blends imperceptibly into those distinct terms, such as 'duty'. What we must do, if we are to show that debts are distinct from duties, is not merely to insist upon conceptual clarity.
