Going above and beyond: non-moral analogues of moral supererogation

McElwee, Brian (2023) Going above and beyond: non-moral analogues of moral supererogation. In, Heyd, David (ed.) Handbook of Supererogation. 1 ed. Springer Singapore, pp. 255-270. (doi:10.1007/978-981-99-3633-5_15).

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Abstract

Apparent analogues of moral supererogation can be found in other normative domains, such as the prudential domain and the epistemic domain. Vindicating moral supererogation requires a convincing response to the challenge of the ‘paradox of moral supererogation’: if some act would be morally best, why would it not be morally required? Vindicating putative non-moral types of supererogation requires responding to analogous challenges: if some act would be best by the lights of some normative domain, why would it not be required by the lights of that domain’s standards? I argue that the key to responding to such challenges involves giving a substantive account of what requirement is within the domain in question. The most promising type of account, I suggest, is what I call the Critical Reaction Account.

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Going Above and Beyond Non-Moral Analogues of Moral Supererogation Accepted Manuscript for PURE - Accepted Manuscript

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