Smallhouse Log

Internetsless IV

A good friend recently told me that I carry duty to the point of irrationality, which was a great surprise to me at the time. Not so much the accusation of irrationality, since I'm accused -usually unjustly- of systematic irrationality on a regular basis. (The accusations of temporary and sporadic irrationality are, I will readily admit, much more often accurate.) Rather, the accusation of being dutiful. I don't think of myself, I protested at the time, as dutiful. My actions are not defined by duty, except to employers, or the country. Formal situations. I have a duty to show up on time for work, and to defend this country should it prove necessary, for examples. But the discussion got me thinking. Well, directed my thinking towards this subject and away from the things otherwise occupying my mental faculties (id est, dinosaurs).

Duty is a hard word to define, especially without Dr. Google to consult. I've learned from Leah the value of investigating existing definitions before stating my own. Is it something one needs to do? Supposed to do? Should do? Will do? My affection for formality leads me to suggest that a duty is something contractual, something one is obliged to do. One /need/ not do a duty; it is conceivable, as an example, that I won't ever pay off my student loans. And though one should do one's duty, not all things one should do are in the domain of duty. I should be polite to everyone, for instance, but I certainly don't have a duty to.

But I'm comfortable with the contract. Failure to fulfill a duty voids, or at least damages, the relationship that gave rise to it. This resonates with me, certainly because of the formality of it, but also on account of the mutuality. Duty is not, to my mind, one-sided. If it was, what would be calling the actor to fulfill his duty? Only he himself. But duty is external. (I tried hard not to make that argument circular, and I'm not sure I succeeded. I basically just said that duty must be mutual because of my assumption that it must be external. But even if that assumption is true, the conclusion doesn't follow. Scrap this paragraph; I need to think about this some more.)

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