oughtness

English

From ought +‎ -ness.

oughtness (countable and uncountable, plural oughtnesses)

(chiefly philosophy) In ethics, the quality which makes an action dutiful or morally obligatory.^[1]
- 1886, William Mitchell, “Moral Obligation”, in Mind, volume 11, number 41, page 40:
  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.
- 1958, Archie J. Bahm, “Aesthetic Experience and Moral Experience”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 55, number 20, page 840:
  Oughtness, may I suggest, consists in the power which a greater good has over a lesser good in compelling our choices.
- 2002, Roberta L. Coles, “Manifest Destiny Adapted for 1990s' War Discourse”, in Sociology of Religion, volume 63, number 4, page 415:
  Combining the reality of politics with a sense of "oughtness" creates a sense of duty to the collective.
(rare) The state or characteristic of something's being as it ought to be; rightness.^[2]
(rare) The obligatoriness of future actions or future states of affairs which are morally worthy of being produced through human effort.
- 1964 December 10, Martin Luther King, Jr., Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Peace Prize:
  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.

^ Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. (2004)
^ “oughtness”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.