oughtness

plural oughtnesses

1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesIn ethics, the quality which makes an action dutiful or morally obligatory.

   Combining the reality of politics with a sense of "oughtness" creates a sense of duty to the collective.

   2002, Roberta L. Coles, “Manifest Destiny Adapted for 1990s' War Discourse”, in Sociology of Religion, volume 63, number 4, page 415

   2 more examples

   Every attempt to derive oughtness from rightness must, as we have shown, either end in an illogical system or destroy the possibility of a separate science of Ethics at all.

   1886, William Mitchell, “Moral Obligation”, in Mind, volume 11, number 41, page 40

   Oughtness, may I suggest, consists in the power which a greater good has over a lesser good in compelling our choices.

   1958, Archie J. Bahm, “Aesthetic Experience and Moral Experience”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 55, number 20, page 840

2. countablerareuncountableThe state or characteristic of something's being as it ought to be; rightness.
3. countablerareuncountableThe obligatoriness of future actions or future states of affairs which are morally worthy of being produced through human effort.

   I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.

   1964 December 10, Martin Luther King, Jr., Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Peace Prize