Oughtness

From ought + -ness.

Full definition of oughtness

(plural oughtnesses)

(chiefly philosophy) In ethics, the quality which makes an action dutiful or morally obligatory.Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. (2004)

1886, William Mitchell, "Moral Obligation," Mind, vol. 11, no. 41, p. 40:Every attempt to derive oughtness from rightness must, as we have shown, either end in an illogical system or destroy the possiblity of a separate science of Ethics at all.
1958, Archie J. Bahm, "Aesthetic Experience and Moral Experience," The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 55, no. 20, p. 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," Sociology of Religion, vol. 63, no. 4, p.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.

Webster 1913

(rare) The obligatoriness of future actions or future states of affairs which are morally worthy of being produced through human effort.

1964 Dec. 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.