INTRODUCTION

Even once we have become adults, we have special duties to our parents. These are special duties because they are not duties that we have to people generally. You might have the duty to keep in touch with your parents, or to take them into your home when they are sick or elderly, but these are not things that you are obliged to do for just anyone.

Duties to parents are, as duties go, important. It is common for people to make large sacrifices in order to provide for their parents, or to be with their parents at crucial times, and to make those sacrifices, in part, because they feel that it is their duty to do so. Those who neglect their filial duties can evoke deep disapproval; think of a rich son who cannot be bothered doing anything to help his parents – his lonely and impoverished but perfectly loving parents, who did all they could to give him the best possible opportunities in life – and try not to disapprove.

When I spoke about friendship and patriotism, I looked at the different ways in which they can involve belief, and can come into conflict with moral or epistemic standards. My discussion of filial loyalty – loyalty to parents – takes a different approach.