Duties and duties to the self

Abstract

V V hereas duties to others have become an accepted part of moral theory, duties to the self have not. Many people who are not skeptical about duties in general are skep? tical about duties to the self; there is a wide? spread view that the idea of such duties, and certainly the concept of self-regarding rights, is incoherent or absurd. This skep? ticism is sometimes warranted: some ap? parent duties to the self are not real duties. Promises to the self, for example, do not ground genuine self-regarding duties. But the problem with promises to the self spe? cifically concerns the nature of promising, rather than features of self-regarding du? ties in general. There are genuine duties to the self, provided that there are duties to others of a certain kind. For example, if one has an unwaivable duty of beneficence, a duty to help others from which one can? not be released, one also has a self-regard? ing duty to promote one's own well-being. If the argument of this paper is correct, al? most everyone who accepts that there are duties to others at all should accept self-re? garding duties. Since it should be obvious that there are duties to the self, why have so many people rejected the idea of such du? ties? One source of hostility to duties to the self is an inadequate conception of duty in general. According to a certain picture of morality, there are two entirely separate spheres of action, a moral sphere that includes duties, and a private sphere that is a sanctu? ary from moral demands. Duties to the self do not fit with this conception of morality; but the picture itself is misguided. Moral and prudential concerns are not entirely separate; in fact, the two spheres are connected by duties to the self. Once duties to the self are

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