Saints, Heroes and Moral Necessity
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 77:105-124 (2015)
Abstract
Many people who perform paradigmatic examples of acts of supererogation claim that they could not have done otherwise. In this paper I will argue that these self-reports from moral exemplars present a challenge to the traditional view of supererogation as involving agential sacrifice. I will argue that the claims made by moral exemplars are plausibly understood as what Bernard Williams calls a ‘practical necessity’. I will then argue that this makes it implausible to view these acts as involving agential sacrifice.
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Archival date: 2015-09-17
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2015-09-17
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582 ( #12,618 of 71,189 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
33 ( #25,346 of 71,189 )
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