Heroes and Jerks: Morality Beyond Requirement

This chapter is about morality beyond moral requirement. Can an action be morally good to do and yet not morally required? Many people think so. If such an action is better than another morally permissible option, then it is supererogatory. Can an action be morally bad to do and yet not morally wrong? Some people think so. Such actions are suberogatory. Some moral views rule out the supererogatory (and also the suberogatory) by holding either that morality is very demanding or that morality consists of no more than a moral permissibility test that leaves significant room for personal choice. But many people reject such moral views and do believe that there are important moral truths beyond moral requirement: Some things we could do are over and above what is required of us. Does the truth about morality beyond requirement end there? Many people think it does, that among morally permissible options, some are morally better than others, without its ever being true that we should take one rather than another of our permissible options. This chapter argues that morality beyond moral requirement goes further. This means that sometimes one should do something, for moral reasons, even though it is not morally required. Sometimes there is something morally good that one should do, though one does not have to do it. And sometimes there is something lousy that one should not do, though it is not morally wrong. Sometimes one should be a hero. And sometimes one could be a jerk but one should not.