moral debt
Owed right action
Moral debt is an obligation created not by contract or law but by conscience—the sense that one owes something to another because of past actions or received benefits.
Someone who was helped during hard times might feel a moral debt to help others similarly.
Unlike financial debt, moral debt has no fixed terms for repayment: I feel a moral debt to the teachers who believed in me.
The concept often surfaces in discussions of historical injustice, where present generations may be said to carry moral debt for their ancestors' wrongs.
- obligationRequired task or commitment
- guiltMoral self-reproach
- guilty conscienceSelf-blame for wrongdoing
- conscienceInternal moral sense
- repaymentGiving back what's owed
settling accounts · sin · original sin · make it right · owing · burden · shame · restitution · karma · penance · remorse · reckoning · amends · gratitude · sacrifice · pay it forward · loyalty · honor
- ethical consequencesguilt, shame, regret, remorse, blame
- guiltguilty, guilt trip, guilty conscience, remorseful, contrition
moral debtrightful claim
moral debtvirtue
Moral goodness or merit
righteousness · blamelessness · good standing · spiritual wealth · clean conscience
moral debtclear conscience
Freedom from moral guilt
moral freedom · absolution · forgiveness · clean slate · atonement
moral, morals, morality, morally, immoral, immorality, amoral, amorality, moralize