What Are My Core Obligations?
47
It is only a short step from these religious views to thinking
that we have strong, binding duties to each other— regardless
of who we are, where we live, or the political system of our
society. The Eastern traditions are very explicit about this.
*
For example, according to Confucius, all human beings have
compelling duties to their families, their communities, and
their governments. In the Western tradition, the ancient
Greeks and Romans held similar views. In Cicero’s classic
essay “On Duties,” he argues that each of us is bound by duties
that originate in our human nature and the communities
that surround us.
6
Seneca, another important Roman states-
man and philosopher, wrote succinctly, “Man is a sacred
thing for man.”
7
Even today, in the contemporary Western world, with
its strong emphasis on individual rights, we continue to live
in a world of duties. Many of these come with our roles in
society: we have duties as parents, as children, as citizens, as
employees, and as professionals. Even the people who are pre-
occupied with asserting their rights cannot escape the world
*This book, at several points, makes a rough distinction between
Western and Eastern ways of thinking and social practices. This is
intended only to highlight broadly divergent tendencies. In reality, of
course, neither the “West” nor the “East” was monolithic. Moreover, they
had important elements in common, and the boundaries between them
were blurred by extensive cross-fertilization of ideas. For example, the
revival of interest in Aristotle during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
resulted from the extensive commentaries on his work by the Muslim
philosopher Ibn Rushd, known also as Averroes. See Roger Arnaldez,
Averroes: a Rationalist in Islam (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre
Dame Press, 2000).
Chapter_03.indd 47 11/06/16 2:23 AM