Morality vs Duty - What's the difference?
morality | duty |
(uncountable) Recognition]] of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of [[behave, behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results.
* 1841 , , Heroes and Hero Worship , ch. 3:
* 1910 , , Theft: A Play In Four Acts , "Characters":
* 1911 , , Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens , ch. 16:
* 1965 , "
(countable) A set of social rules, customs, traditions, beliefs, or practices which specify proper, acceptable forms of conduct.
* 1912 , , Pygmalion , act 5:
* 1917 , . The Yukon Trail , ch. 14:
(countable) A set of personal guiding principles for conduct or a general notion of how to behave, whether respectable or not.
* 1781 , , "Sheffield" in Lives of the Poets :
* 1994 , "Man Convicted of Murder in '92 Bludgeoning," San Jose Mercury News , 4 Nov., p. 2B:
(countable, archaic) A lesson or pronouncement which contains advice about proper behavior.
* 1824 , , St. Ronan's Well , ch. 16:
* 1882 , , "Vanitas Vanitatum" in Ballads ,
(uncountable, rare) Moral philosophy, the branch of philosophy which studies the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
* 1953 , J. Kemp, "Review of The Claim of Morality'' by N.H.G. Robinson," ''The Philosophical Quarterly , vol. 3, no. 12, p. 278:
(countable, rare) A particular theory concerning the grounds and nature of rightness, wrongness, good, and evil.
* 1954 , , "Ethics and Moral Controversy," The Philosophical Quarterly , vol. 4, no. 14, p. 11:
That which one is morally or legally obligated to do.
:
*1805 , 21 October,
*:England expects that every man will do his duty .
*
*:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty , cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.}}
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
, title= A period of time spent at work or doing a particular task.
:
Describing a workload as to its idle, working and de-energized periods.
A tax placed on imports or exports; a tariff.
(lb) One's due, something one is owed; a debt or fee.
*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) XX:
*:Take that which is thy duty , and goo thy waye.
(lb) Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:my duty to you
The efficiency of an engine, especially a steam pumping engine, as measured by work done by a certain quantity of fuel; usually, the number of pounds of water lifted one foot by one bushel of coal (94 lbs. old standard), or by 1 cwt. (112 lbs., England, or 100 lbs., United States).
As a noun morality
is (uncountable) recognition]] of the distinction between good and evil or between right and wrong; respect for and obedience to the rules of right conduct; the mental disposition or characteristic of [[behave|behaving in a manner intended to produce morally good results.As an adjective duty is
hollow (having an empty space inside).morality
English
Noun
- Without morality , intellect were impossible for him; a thoroughly immoral man'' could not know anything at all! To know a thing, what we can call knowing, a man must first ''love'' the thing, sympathize with it: that is, be ''virtuously related to it.
- Ellery Jackson Hubbard. . . . A man radiating prosperity, optimism and selfishness. Has no morality whatever. Is a conscious individualist, cold-blooded, pitiless, working only for himself, and believing in nothing but himself.
- Science and art without morality are not dangerous in the sense commonly supposed. They are not dangerous like a fire, but dangerous like a fog.
King Moves North," Time , 30 Apr.:
- It may be true that you cannot legislate morality , but behavior can be regulated.
- I have to live for others and not for myself: that's middle class morality .
- He smiled a little. "Morality is the average conduct of the average man at a given time and place. It is based on custom and expediency."
- His morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions.
- Deputy District Attorney Bill Tingle called Jones "the devil's right-hand man" and said he should be punished for his "atrocious morality ."
- "She had done her duty"—"she left the matter to them that had a charge anent such things"—and "Providence would bring the mystery to light in his own fitting time"—such were the moralities with which the good dame consoled herself.
p. 195:
- What mean these stale moralities ,
- Sir Preacher, from your desk you mumble?
- Robinson sums up the conclusion of the first part of his book as being "that the task of the moralist is to set in their proper relation to one another the three different types of moral judgment . . . and so reveal the field of morality as a single self-coherent system".
- Hume's morality' which ‘implies some sentiment common to all mankind’; Kant's '''morality''' for all rational beings; Butler's ' morality with its presupposition of ‘uniformity of conscience’.
Usage notes
* Although the terms morality'' and ''ethics'' may sometimes be used interchangeably, philosophical ethicists often distinguish them, using ''morality'' and its related terms to refer to actual, real-world beliefs and practices concerning proper conduct, and using ''ethics'' to refer to theories and conceptual studies relating to good and evil and right and wrong. In this vein, the American philosopher , ed., ''The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard , Library of Living Philosophers, ISBN 0875483496, "Autobiography", p. 85.Synonyms
* decency, rectitude, righteousness, uprightness, virtuousness * (personal guiding principles) morals * conventions, morals, mores * (lesson or pronouncement which contains advice) homily * (branch of philosophy) ethics, moral philosophy * ethics, moral philosophyAntonyms
* amorality, immoralityDerived terms
* antimorality * morality play * morality taleExternal links
* * *References
Anagrams
*duty
English
Noun
(duties)Keeping the mighty honest, passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}