moral obligation
Conscience-driven responsibility
A moral obligation is a duty arising from ethical principles rather than law or contract.
Unlike legal obligations, moral obligations have no external enforcement—only conscience.
You might feel a moral obligation to help a stranger in distress, to keep a promise even when inconvenient, or to care for aging parents.
He felt a moral obligation to speak up about the fraud.
- dutyRequired moral task
- conscienceInternal moral sense
- do the right thingBehave with moral integrity
- oughtExpresses duty or obligation
- responsibilityState of being answerable
categorical imperative · ethics · duty of care · accountability · righteousness · deontology · stewardship · pay it forward · virtue · principle · integrity · promise · good faith · calling · guilt · honor · sacred duty · debt
- dutiesduty, task, responsibility, ethical duty, professional duty
- moral sayingsdo unto others, golden rule, do the right thing, honesty is the best policy, treat others fairly
- ethicsdeontology, dignity, sanctity of life, utilitarianism, consequentialism
- Jewish valuestikkun olam, mussar, shalom, simcha, honoring parents
- Kantian ethicscategorical imperative, Kant, good will, practical reason, maxims
- natural lawnatural law, natural rights, natural justice, natural order, universal law
moral obligationmoral freedom
Power to choose rightly
permission · absolution · dispensation · liberty · amorality
moral obligationsin
Violation of divine law
ethical violation · vice · forbidden act · moral transgression · proscription
moral obligationlegal requirement
legal duty · legal obligation · contractual obligation · self-interest · social convention
moral, immoral, morality, obligation, morals, oblige, amoral, immorality, demoralize