4.3 obligations

Living without obligations

Julia did not want to study nor doing anything her teachers or parents asked her to do in the school or at home. She just wanted to play with her console, chat with her friends on the mobile phone and watch the television. Julia wanted to live without obligations.

Her parents were tired of Julia's attitude and then one day they decided that they would not fulfill their obligations either. So, they stopped buying food and preparing any more meals. In the afternoon, and later at night, they went out with their friends, leaving Julia alone in the house, without any food. The next morning, they did not bother to wake her up or to prepare her breakfast. They did not care if Julia went to school or stayed at home all day. It seemed that Julia had finally achieved her goal: a life without obligations.

This situation went on for a couple of days, until Julia realized that if each of us do not fulfill our most important obligations, then we can't live together.

- What are your most important obligations?
- What are your parents most important obligations?
- And what about the most fundamental obligations of your teachers?
- What do we gain when we all meet our most important obligations?

In a previous section, we have defined a norm as a socially accepted way of doing something. After that, we talked about the connection between rules and rights: rules, specially formal rules, give people rights. Some rights are very important, they are the Human Rights.

Now we realize that norms are closely connected with obligations: norms impose obligations. Every norm says how we should do something, so every norm expresses an obligation.

In the same way that there are many kinds of norms (such as formal and informal), there are many kinds of obligations. One way to classify norms and obligations is according to its origin:

- Legal obligations, connected with formal norms.
- Religious obligations, connected with formal and informal norms. Different religions usually impose different obligations.
- Social obligations, connected with informal norms. They may be different from one society to another.
- Personal obligations, such as those our parents and teachers put on us. They may be different form one person to another. Some of these obligations are based on formal norms, others are based on informal rules.

Exercise 3.1 Types of norms (types of obligations)

Classify the following norms (and obligations) as legal, religious, social or personal.

Why do we (sometimes) obey rules?

To have an obligation is not the same as to meet an obligation:

- I have the obligation of be in the class at 8:30, but some days I am late.
- You should comb your hair before getting out, but sometimes you forget.

Why do we (sometimes) meet our obligations? The answer usually depends on the type of obligation, but when people look for reasons to meet their obligations, they usually say that:

- Legal and other formal obligations must be met because otherwise we may be punished by the authorities.
- Religious obligations must be met because our church, priests and scriptures tell us so.
- Social obligations must be met because otherwise society will criticize us in one way or another.
- Personal obligations must be met because of the authority of the people who put those norms.

But these answers are not the only possible ones. Many times, people meet their obligations because they want to:

- Legal and other formal obligations are met because we are convinced they are essential in our society.
- Religious obligations are met because of our faith.
- Social obligations are met because we like them or because we are used to them.
- Personal obligations are met because we trust, love or respect the person who put the norm.

These answers show that we obey norms and meet the corresponding obligations because of two very different types of reasons:

- Because of external forces: the police, the priests of our church, the society, the authority of some people.
- Because of internal forces: our beliefs, our faith, our habits, the love and respect we feel for some people.

- Which ones of these two types of forces (external or internal) is preferable?
- Why are they preferable?

When I was in first grade, I did what my teachers told me because otherwise I would fail the exams and my parents would be mad at me. Now I am in fourth grade and I study daily because I want to become a good professional.
- What does this story teaches us?

Exercise 3.2 Reasons to obey rules

Classify the following situations as examples of external or internal forces to obey rules:

Obligations

To be obligated is to be forced in one way or another to do something in a certain way instead of doing it differently. The force behind some obligations can be very strong and we may be compelled to comply with them. For other obligations, the force may be weak or almost non existent and we can do almost whatever we want. Therefore, we can classify our obligations into:

- Strong obligations
- Weak obligations

We can also distinguish obligations depending on the origin of that force. We can distinguish between two types of obligations:

1. Duties. Obligations that other people imposes upon us. We feel obliged by external forces.
2. Commitments. Obligations that we impose upon ourselves. We feel obliged by internal forces.

Both duties and commitments can be strong or weak depending on the forces that act upon us.

Exercise 3.3 Examples of different types of obligations

Find four examples combining the strong/weak and external/internal types of obligations:

Exercise 3.4 My duties and my commitments

Write an essay about your duties and commitments:

- Which are your two most important duties? What external forces oblige you to fulfill those duties?
- Which are your two most important commitments? What internal forces impel you to fulfill those commitments?
- Do you have more duties or more commitments? Why is that so? Do you think the balance between the number of duties and commitments will change in the future?

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