Four Theories of Filial Duty

Philosophical Quarterly 56 (223):254 - 274 (2006)
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Abstract

Children have special duties to their parents: there are things that we ought to do for our parents, but not for just anyone. Three competing accounts of filial duty appear in the literature: the debt theory, the gratitude theory and the friendship theory. Each is unsatisfactory: each tries to assimilate the moral relationship between parent and child to some independently understood conception of duty, but this relationship is different in structure and content from any that we are likely to share with anyone apart from a parent. A more promising account will concentrate on what is unique about the parent-child relationship. I articulate and defend the 'special goods theory', according to which filial duties arise from the distinctive kinds of goods that healthy parent-child relationships typically involve

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Simon Keller
Victoria University of Wellington

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References found in this work

The schizophrenia of modern ethical theories.Michael Stocker - 1976 - Journal of Philosophy 73 (14):453-466.
Gratitude and justice.Patrick Fitzgerald - 1998 - Ethics 109 (1):119-153.
Filial Morality.Christina Hoff Sommers - 1986 - Journal of Philosophy 83 (8):439.
Filial morality.Christina Hoff Sommers - 1986 - Journal of Philosophy 83 (8):439-456.
The Friendship Model of Filial Obligations.Nicholas Dixon - 1995 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 12 (1):77-87.

View all 7 references / Add more references