The concept of what we owe each other is related to the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. This social contract is based on mutual obligations among our family, community, place of work, and fellow citizens. Caring for others, paying taxes, and benefiting from public services define the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. However, our social contract has been broken by changing gender roles, technology, new models of work, aging, and the perils of climate change.
According to T.M. Scanlon, the central part of morality concerns what we owe to each other. He argues that thinking about right and wrong is thinking about what we do in terms that could be justified to others and that they could not reasonably reject. He shows how the special authority of conclusions about right and wrong arises from the value of being related to others in this way, and he shows how familiar moral ideas such as fairness and responsibility can be understood through their role in this process of mutual justification and criticism.
In summary, what we owe each other is a complex concept that is related to the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. It involves mutual obligations among our family, community, place of work, and fellow citizens, as well as moral obligations that concern what we owe to each other.
