Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-16T22:15:35.723Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

67 - General Duties of Social Life. (2) Charity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2009

Neil Gross
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Robert Alun Jones
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Get access

Summary

The moral law requires more of us than that we not treat others as means; in addition, the personality of the other must be treated as an end. So beyond the negative duties of justice, there are the positive duties of charity. We can't remain content simply to avoid undermining the other's personality but should do everything possible to help him realize and develop it. To the formula of the moral law that sums up justice in the phrase “Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you” must be added the formula of charity: “Do unto others as you would have done to you.” In other words, don't rest content with seeing to it that your own personality remains intact. Seek to enlarge your personality, and help others to do the same.

Like the duties of justice, those of charity can be deduced from the moral law. Because the person of the other consists of a body and a soul, we must work not just to avoid injuring both but to support them and, if the need arises, to care for them. The duty of charity toward the body of another requires that we look after his health.

As for the soul, we must again distinguish between three faculties: sensibility, intelligence, and activity. For sensibility, the courtesy demanded by justice becomes, in the context of the duties of charity, benevolence.

Type
Chapter
Information
Durkheim's Philosophy Lectures
Notes from the Lycée de Sens Course, 1883–1884
, pp. 270 - 271
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×