ABSTRACT

This chapter attempts to give empirical definitions to the words ought, obligated and their cognates and synonyms. According to the American Heritage, the word ought comes from old English aght, or acht, for debt, or duty. Many people find the analogies just described entirely convincing, fallacious though they may be from the point of view of strict logic. Particularly popular is the ideas that have obligations to ourselves—for example, to get more exercise, to save some money or spend it more carefully, to carry a gun or take advantage of others in a trade, and so on. Special remarks are in order to the ought of obligation—the claim that people ought to do something because they have an obligation to do it. In this connection, it should be noted that people having an obligation means only that they ought to fulfill it, other things being equal; not that people ought to fulfill it, all things considered.