Supererogation

Abstract

Supererogation is the technical term for the class of actions that go“beyond the call of duty.” Roughly speaking,supererogatory acts are morally good although not (strictly) required.Although common discourse in most cultures allows for such acts andoften attaches special value to them, ethical theories have onlyrarely discussed this category of actions directly and systematically.A conspicuous exception is the Roman Catholic tradition, which gaverise to the concept of supererogation, and the virulent attacks on itby Lutherans and Calvinists. Surprisingly, the history ofsupererogation in non-religious ethical theory is fairly recent,starting only in 1958 with J. O. Urmson’s seminal article,“Saints and Heroes.”, The Latin etymology of “supererogation” is paying out morethan is due (super-erogare), and the term first appears inthe Latin version of the New Testament in the parable of the GoodSamaritan. Although we often believe that Good Samaritanism ispraiseworthy and non-obligatory at the same time, philosophicalreflection raises the question whether there can be any morally goodactions that are not morally required, and even if there are suchactions, how come they are optional or supererogatory. Thus, thesubstantial literature on supererogation since the 1960s demonstratesthat even though the class of actions beyond duty is relatively smalland the philosophical attention paid to it is only recent, the statusof supererogation in ethical theory is important in exposing deepproblems about the nature of duty and its limits, the relationshipbetween duty and value, the role of ideals and excuses in ethicaljudgment, the nature of moral reasons, and the connection betweenactions and virtue. Supererogation raises interesting problems both onthe meta-ethical level of deontic logic and on the normative level ofthe justification of moral demands.