supererogatory

• “It might be morally better to give the money to charity, but such contributions seem supererogatory, that is, above and beyond the call of duty.”

  Consequentialism

• “Christian virtue was conceived, in much greater freedom from self-seeking, as the-simple fruit of faith; and the notion of supererogatory works became impossible in view of the decided recognition, that the life even of the most holy always falls short of moral perfection.”

  Christian Ethics. Volume I.���History of Ethics.

• “The evangelical tendency which during the time of the universal domination of the Romish church had never entirely disappeared, and which, especially since the appearance of the Waldenses, had been growing more positive in its opposition to the corrupted church, directed its efforts from the very first against the anti-scriptural and arbitrary ordinances of said church, especially against the work-holiness of monastic morality, in order to vindicate the moral freedom of the Christian personality, and also against the sophistical laxity of the more recent period; this tendency insists above all upon faith-born love as the source and essence of all true morality, and rejects the notion of supererogatory merit as arising from the observance of the so-called evangelical counsels. —”

  Christian Ethics. Volume I.���History of Ethics.

• “I typed it in to the computer and swiftly learned – I can see you smiling up your sleeve – that it is really “supererogatory”.”

  Archive 2009-06-01

• “This was supererogatory, for the tracks told their own tale too well.”

  TO THE MAN ON THE TRAIL

• “Carrying a pregnancy to term and enduring the violent crisis of childbirth is a supererogatory act of grace on the part of a woman, not an obligation.”

  Matthew Yglesias » Too Hot for CBS

• “Although adoption is arguably an unnatural arrangement, it is nonetheless widely agreed to be a laudatory, if not supererogatory, service to society.”

  Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Tony Blair said: “I...

• “Most of those people are utilitarians of one kind or another, so they do not recognize the existence of supererogatory actions.”

  The Book Mike Huemer Should Write, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

• “Okay, so most of those people don't know what supererogatory means, but they are committed to a belief system that denies the existence of supererogatory actions.”

  The Book Mike Huemer Should Write, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

• “The conceptual question of what we mean by supererogation and the substantive question of whether there actually are supererogatory acts (and how their normative value can be justified) are inextricably interrelated.”

  Fictionaut: How to Kill a Missionary

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