2022-11-23 Wed 14:42 PM ![[Pasted image 20221123151338.png]] Duty calls us to certain acts. Sometimes those acts are easy to do, requiring no special bravery or self-control. Sometimes those acts do require special bravery or self-control, and only special individuals are able to do their duty. But duty only extends so far, and as [[Ref. J.O. Urmson 1958 - Saints and heroes]] pointed out,^["Let us then take it as established that we have to deal in ethics not with a simple trichotomy of duties, permissible actions, and wrong actions, or any substantially similar conceptual scheme, but with something more complicated. We have to add at least the complication of actions that are certainly of moral worth but that fall outside the notion of a duty and seem to go beyond it, actions worthy of being called heroic or saintly."] there exist valorous acts in the space above and beyond the call of duty.^[The kind of thing the Medal of Honor is awarded for. Eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matej_Kocak "When the advance of his battalion was checked by a hidden machine-gun nest, he went forward alone, unprotected by covering fire from his own men, and worked in between the German positions in the face of fire from enemy covering detachments. Locating the machine-gun nest, he rushed it and with his bayonet drove off the crew. Shortly after this he organized 25 French colonial soldiers who had become separated from their company and led them in attacking another machine-gun nest, which was also put out of action."] For those we have the adjective "supererogatory". Etymology: from Latin super "above, over" + erogare "pay out"^[https://www.etymonline.com/word/supererogation#etymonline_v_22366] - Related - [[Ref. J.O. Urmson 1958 - Saints and heroes]] - [[Full-spectrum flourishing]], [[Privileging harm reduction]] - Venial sins and mortal sins - Summum malum and summum bonum