On Moral Duty And Legal Duty

Moral duty and legal duty have long been the core concepts of ethics and law.The connotation and extension of the two are also one of the important problems ofthe argument and exploration of thinkers of various times. The concern aboutmoral duty in the academic circle of the West began in the times of ancient Greeceand thinkers' understanding of the essence of moral duty has experienced aperception process of increasingly deepening. However, in ancient Greece andancient Rome, thinkers did not put forward a definite concept of legal duty. Inmodern times, Hobbes first connected duty with legal rights, and the position oflegal duty as an independent concept began to be established gradually. In ancientChina, "propriety" and "righteousness" were the basic norms that prescribedpeople's behaviors and at that time, there was no concept of duty in the meaning ofethics and law. After "Western learning spreading to the East" in modern times, thethought of duty in the meaning of modern times has begun to spread in China. This thesis applies the methodology of literature, history, and comparativestudies. Through tracking the history process of the formation and evolution of moralduty and legal duty, problems on the connotation, characteristics, functions andperformance ways of moral duty and legal duty are summed up and summarizedrespectively and rather systematically. Based on this, a thorough discussion is madein the thesis on the differences and similarities of the two, their respective functionaladvantages and restrictions and mutual complementary ways. The thesis believes that the "foothold" or the central word used to define theconception of moral duty and legal duty is "behavior". Moral duty and legal dutyhave common value goals, same action direction and similar norms on requirementsand prohibitions, and this decides the two have something in common ---functionperformance. Moral duty and legal duty show different attributes in the aspects suchas concept statement, the definition of main bodies, the maintenance of mechanismand role fields, and this decides that the two lay their particular emphases onfunction performance. The thesis stresses that facing complicated, rich and colorfulsocial life, moral duty and legal duty have the characteristic of mutual supplement inadvantages. As far as moral duty is concerned, the function performance has theadvantages in the active prevention of benefit conflicts, low cost operation, andbroad field adjustment;and at the same time, it has the restrictions of weakcompulsory force, multi-culture tendency and weak matching. As far as legal duty isconcerned, the function performance has the advantages of compulsory authority,clear definition, and direct prohibition of wrong doings, but it also shows therestrictions of difficulties in subjectiveness being objectivized, high cost of operationand maintenance, and limitation of regulative fields.The thesis believes that moral duty is the foundation of legal duty and legal dutyis guarantee for moral duty. Because the two differ from each other and are alsorelated to each other, if we mix them together, morality cannot be distinct from lawclearly, In practice, through clear understanding of the two, we can establish goodmutual motion of moral duty and legal duty. Through the best disposition of moralduty and legal duty, the society can be guided to go forward along the scheduled pathof values and ideals.