The Rationally Supererogatory
The Rationally Supererogatory
Benn, C & Bales, A 2020 ‘The Rationally Supererogatory’, Mind, vol. 129, no. 515, pp. 917-938.
The notion of supererogation—going above and beyond the call of duty—is typically discussed in a moral context. However, in this paper, we argue for the existence of rationally supererogatory actions: that is, of actions that go above and beyond the call of rational duty. In order to establish the existence of such actions, we first need to overcome the so-called paradox of supererogation. That is, we need to provide some explanation for why, if some act is rationally optimal, it is not the case that we are rationally required to carry out the act. We argue that a response to this ‘paradox’ can be found by reflecting on normative conflicts: cases where what is best according to some normative domain is different to what is best according to some other normative domain.
This work contributes to the foundations of our Algorithmic Ethics research theme: one of our pressing questions is to explore just how the supererogatory should feature within algorithmic ethics, if at all.
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