Alexander Pruss's Blog

Sometimes I have some onerous task that we seem to have a duty to perform. And then something happens—perhaps we learn something or perhaps ...

Normally if Alice did something supererogatory for Bob, Bob has gained a duty to be grateful to me. It is puzzling that we have this normati...

Take a science fiction movie scenario. Carl is trapped near a device set to explode, and cannot be freed until too late. However, it is poss...

Consider this plausible definition: An action is supererogatory provided that it is good but not obligatory. Now add this thesis: We h...

Sometimes supererogation is defined by a conjunction of a positive evaluation of performing the action and a denial of a negative evaluation...

Suppose that Bob spent a month making a birthday cake for Alice that was only slightly better than what was available in the store, and Bob ...

My preferred way of understanding supererogation is that an action is supererogatory provided that it is permissible and more burdensome tha...

If at most one action is possible for one, that action is not supererogatory. If determinism is true, then there is never more than one ac...

The cheetah whose maximum speed is 40 mph is subnormal. The cheetah whose maximum speed is 58 mph is merely normal. The cheetah whose maximu...

Roughly speaking, when one acts supererogatorily, one does more than one is obligated to. A typical case looks something like this: It wou...

There is no strict duty to reward a person who has done a supererogatory thing. Otherwise, engaging in generosity would be a way of imposing...

Supererogatory actions are admirable but not obligatory. A sufficient, and perhaps necessary, condition for an action A to be supererogator...

Supererogation is a difficult concept for me. But there has to be such a thing. If Jones has suffered two hundred weeks of torture to ...

Start with these observations: Love is the most important aspect of the moral life. If love is the most important aspect of on...