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Susan Wolf on Supererogation and the Dark Side of Morality

In: Organon F, vol. 2022, no. 2
Nora Grigore

Details:

Year, pages: 2022, 200 - 218
Language: eng
Keywords:
Morality; moral saints; supererogation.
Article type: Research Article
About article:
Wolf proposes supererogation as a solution for curbing the exaggerated demands of morality. Adopting supererogation is supposed to prevent us from considering that all morally good deeds are obligatory. Supererogation, indeed, makes some morally good deeds merely optional, saving the agent from the requirement of behaving as much as possible like a Moral Saint. But I argue that Wolf cannot use supererogation in service of her overall project, for two reasons. First, because implied in the concept of supererogation is that going beyond duty adds to our humanity rather than detract from it (as Wolf argues). Secondly, after analyzing attempts to acclimatize supererogation in other theoretical frameworks, I conclude that supererogation can limit morality’s claims only if Wolf’s reasons of “individual perfection” can defeat moral reasons. I argue that a common scale of evaluation between moral and non-moral reasons is needed for their comparison, but Wolf explicitly rejects this way out.
How to cite:
ISO 690:
Grigore, N. 2022. Susan Wolf on Supererogation and the Dark Side of Morality. In Organon F, vol. 2022, no.2, pp. 200-218. 1335-0668. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2022.29202

APA:
Grigore, N. (2022). Susan Wolf on Supererogation and the Dark Side of Morality. Organon F, 2022(2), 200-218. 1335-0668. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2022.29202
About edition:
Publisher: Filozofický ústav SAV, Filosofický ústav AVČR
Published: 29. 5. 2022
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0)