Chapter 1:

Rights and
Duties
-Group 5-
 Article 1. Rights
A. Definition of Right

● Right is defined as that which is owned or that which is

due.

● Right is founded upon law. For the existence of a right in

one person involves an obligation in all others of not
impeding or violating the right.
Jessa Carbonilla
• And whether this law, upon which right is
based, be that natural law or positive law, it is
(as all true law) founded ultimately upon the
Eternal Law.

Jessa Carbonilla
B. Division of Right

• Right is natural or positive as it is founded upon

the natural law or positive law.

• According to the division of human law, we have

ecclesiastical right and civil right.

Jessa Carbonilla
• Right is also distinguised as right or property
and right of jurisdiction.

• Right is alienable when its subject (i.e its

possessor) may lawfully cede or renounce it.

Jessa Carbonilla
• Right is juridical (or perfect) when it is a legal
right, a right strictly enjoined by law, natural or
positive.

• Right is non- juridical (or imperfect. or moral, or

“a claim” when it is founded on a virtue other than
justice.
Jessa Carbonilla
 C. Properties of Right

i. Coaction- is the power which rights enjoys of

forcefully preventing its violation, and of
exacting redress for unjust violation.

Jessa Carbonilla
ii. Limitation- is the natural terminus of right,
beyond which it cannot be exercised without
violating the right of another.

iii. Collision- is the apprent conflict of two rights

in such wise that cannot be exercised without
violation of the other.

Jessa Carbonilla
 .
D The Subject of Right
• ..The subject of right is a person.

• Right is a moral power, and belongs only

to those who can exercise moral acts.

Jessa Carbonilla
 Article 2. Duties

A. Definition Duty

● Objective Duty

Duty is considered to be an object or a thing which means, it

is anything one is obliged to do or omit.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

 Article 2. Duties
A. Definition Duty
● Ethics takes the term duty subjectively, as affecting the
subject bound by it.
● It is also defined as a moral obligation incumbent upon a
person of doing or omitting (avoiding) something.
● Duty is a moral obligation.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

B. Division of Duty

1. NATURAL AND POSITIVE DUTY

A DUTY IMPOSED BY THE NATURAL LAW IS

NATURAL.

A natural duty is a moral obligation that a person has

to do what is right, regardless of any legal or contractual
obligations. It is also known as a moral duty.
Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar
 A DUTY WHICH COMES FROM POSITIVE
LAW IS POSITIVE.

Positive duties are viewed as duties which

require us to perform an action which produces a
certain good-a good which someone else still might
bring about, even if we do not.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

2. AFFIRMATIVE AND NEGATIVE DUTIES

A DUTY WHICH REQUIRES THE

PERFORMANCE OF AN ACT IS AFFIRMATIVE.
Affirmative duty is a legal obligation that requires
some effort or action to satisfy.
THOSE THAT A PERSON MUST DO.

For example, “Honor thy father and thy mother”.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar
A DUTY WHICH REQUIRES THE OMMISSION OR
AVOIDANCE OF SOMETHING IS NEGATIVE.

Negative duty is a duty that one should not

perform a certain action.
THOSE THAT A PERSON MUST OMIT OR
REFRAIN FROM DOING.

For example, “Thou shall not kill”.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar
3. PERFECT OR JURIDICAL AND IMPERFECT
OR NON-JURIDICAL DUTIES

A DUTY WHICH OBLIGES IN STRICT

JUSTICE, AND SO CORRESPONDS TO A PERFECT
RIGHT, IS A PERFECT OR JURIDICAL DUTY.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

 A DUTY WHICH DOES NOT OBLIGATE
ACCORDING TO JUSTICE AND CORRESPONDS TO
A NON-JURIDICAL RIGHT, IS A NON-JURIDICAL,
AN IMPERFECT, OR A MORAL DUTY.
A duty obliged to fulfill general but not in every
instance.
THOSE CALLED BY NON-JURIDICAL
CONSIDERATIONS SUCH AS PITY AND
GRATITUDE
Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar
4. GREATER AND LESSER DUTIES

THE LESSER CEASES TO BE A DUTY AND

THE GREATER PREVAILS
GREATER DUTY COMES FROM A HIGHER
POWER OR HIGHER LAW

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

 EXEMPTION FROM DUTY

• Duty is founded by law

• From an old saying “Necessity knows no law”.
• What of the value of this saying moral
matters?

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

• When there is an imminent evil that cannot be
avoided except by a violation of duty, is one
exempted from the duty?
• In other words, does necessity exempt from
duty?

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

 THREE DEGREES OF NECESSITY
1. EXTREME NECESSTITY

When one’s choice lies between duty or death or

between duty or evil fairly comparable with death.

THE SELECTION IS BETWEEN DUTY AND

DEATH OR SOMETHING EQUIVALENT TO
DEATH.
2. GRAVE NECESSITY

When one’s choice lies between duty and a

notable evil less than death, such as loss of
health, good name, or very valuable property.
THE SELECTION IS BETWEEN DUTY
AND A SERIOUS HARDSHIP.
3. COMMON OR ORDINARY NECESSITY

When one’s choice lies between duty and the

enduring of ordinary evils or common hardships.
THE SELECTION IS BETWEEN DUTY AND A
MINIMAL DIFFICULTY.
PRINCIPLES CONCERNING THE
EXEMPTING FORCE OF
NECESSITY
1. COMMON OR ORDINARY NECESSITY NEVER
EXEMPTS FROM DUTY

This principle needs no proof because this is

evidently true.
For duty is obligation, and obligation ordinarily
involves some measure of difficulty or self-denial.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

1. COMMON OR ORDINARY NECESSITY NEVER
EXEMPTS FROM DUTY

If common necessity exempted one from duty, one

might escape every duty, for it is quite the easiest thing in
the world to find a difficulty or an inconvenience in
anything one does not feel inclined to do.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

2. NO NECESSITY EXEMPTS FROM A NEGATIVE
NATURAL DUTY

A NEGATIVE NATURAL DUTY IS A DUTY

THAT COMES FROM A NEGATIVE LAW OF THE
NATURAL ORDER.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

3. EXTREME OR GRAVE NECESSITY EXEMPTS
FROM A NATURAL AFFIRMATIVE DUTY

PROVIDED THERE IS NO INVOLVED

VIOLATION OF A NEGATIVE PRECEPT OF THE
NATURAL LAW.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

4. EXTREME OR GRAVE NECESSITY EXEMPTS
FROM THE PRESCRIPTIONS OF POSITIVE LAW,
PROVIDED THERE IS NO INVOLVED VIOLATION
OF NEGATIVE NATURAL LAW

For certainly that which is sufficient to exempt from

a prescription of the natural law.

Jezyl Ann A. Faelnar

 Chapter 2:

Man’s Duty
Towards God

April Arnaiz
All man's duties are owed to God, for all suites
are imposed, directly or indirectly, by God and
their fulfilment leads man to God, his last end.

April Arnaiz
 Religion
A. Definition and Division of Religion
(Subjective) Moral virtue which inclines the will to
give to God the worship which is His due.

(Objective) Object which is the sum-total of truths and

laws which establish and regulate man's duties to God.
April Arnaiz
 Ethics is primarily concerned with
objective religion where it defines it as " a system
of truth, laws, a d practices which regulate divine
worship."

April Arnaiz
Objective Religion:

1. Natural Religion
sum-total of religious truths and laws which are
known or can be known by sound human reason, unaided by
divine revelation.

April Arnaiz
2. Supernatural Religion
Known as "revealed religion" as the sum-total of
truths and laws divinely revealed to regulate man's duties
towards God.

April Arnaiz
B. The Obligation of Religion

Man is bound to render to God, the duty of

religion.

The highest honor, obedience, love and

gratitude are owed to God.

April Arnaiz
B. The Obligation of Religion

Man is bound to render to God the duty of

religion.
One must also regard this duty in it's true light
as the most important affair of life.

April Arnaiz
C. The Relation of Religion to Morality

There can be no morality without religion.

Morality itself is religion-its norm is the
line within which man must keep to make his
actions carry him towards his last end-God.

April Arnaiz
 Morality or moral duty arises from a bond
which necessarily exists between human acts and
the end which these are to achieve -God.

The bi dis not made by man, but by God,

who has established the necessary relations
between human acts and the last end.

April Arnaiz
 WORSHIP

A. Definition and Division of Worship

In Ethics we employ the term “worship” to signify the

expression of religion, and in this use it is more properly
called “divine worship.”

Marie Maureal
Divine Worship distinguished as:

1. Internal - consists in the acts of mind and will by

which due ship consists in the acts of mind by which
due honor and homage are paid to God.

2. External - consists in the acts which sensibly

express this honor and homage.

Marie Maureal
B. The Obligation of Worship

Man is bound to render to God the duty of

worship, both internal and external, both private
and public.

Marie Maureal
Man is bound to internal worship to God because we
have already proved that man has the duty of religion
towards God.

Man is bound to external worship to God because man is

bound to show to God due honor and homage because
God is his Creator, Preserver, and Master.

Marie Maureal
C. The Acts of Worship

* Devotion - true and sincere devotion comes from the

knowledge and love of God.

* Prayer - is the elevation of the mind to God to praise

Him, to thank Him, and to ask His blessings.

Marie Maureal
C. The Acts of Worship

* Adoration - a kneeling posture at prayer is an act of

adoration. It is the normal external expression of
acknowledgment of God’s supreme control of the
universe.

* Sacrifice - it is the highest act of divine worship

Marie Maureal
Thank you! 