Morally-Demanding Infinite Responsibility

Beschreibung

This book presents a conceptual mapping of supererogation in the analytic moral philosophical tradition. It first asks whether supererogation can be conceptualised in the absence of obligation or duty and then makes the case that it can be. It does so by enlisting the resources of the continental tradition, specifically using the work of Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of infinite responsibility. In so doing the book contributes to the ongoing efforts to create a common ethical terminology between the analytic and continental traditions within moral philosophy.Supererogatory actions are praiseworthy actions that go ‘beyond duty’, and yet are not blameworthy when not performed. In responding to this paradox, moral philosophy either brackets or attempts a reductionism of supererogation. Supererogation is epitomised in the paradigmatic figures of the saint and hero. Yet, most would agree that emulating these figures is too morally demanding. We rightly ask: where does moral obligation end? Is it even possible, or desirable to demarcate such a boundary? Besides the important theoretical issues these questions raise, they also speak to practical ethical dilemmas in the contemporary milieu, as they concern the global wealthy’s responsibility to the poor and the challenges of development aid work.
This book presents a conceptual mapping of supererogation in the analytic moral philosophical tradition. It first asks whether supererogation can be conceptualised in the absence of obligation or duty and then makes the case that it can be. It does so by enlisting the resources of the continental tradition, specifically using the work of Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of infinite responsibility. In so doing the book contributes to the ongoing efforts to create a common ethical terminology between the analytic and continental traditions within moral philosophy.
Supererogatory actions are praiseworthy actions that go ‘beyond duty’, and yet are not blameworthy when not performed. In responding to this paradox, moral philosophy either brackets or attempts a reductionism of supererogation. Supererogation is epitomised in the paradigmatic figures of the saint and hero. Yet, most would agree that emulating these figures is too morally demanding. We rightly ask: where does moral obligation end? Is it even possible, or desirable to demarcate such a boundary? Besides the important theoretical issues these questions raise, they also speak to practical ethical dilemmas in the contemporary milieu, as they concern the global wealthy’s responsibility to the poor and the challenges of development aid work.
Addresses the neglect of the study of supererogation within the continental philosophical tradition First to develop Levinasian politics by enlisting work from Philosophical or critical Complexity Brings the work of Peter Singer and Emmanuel Levinas into conversation Contributes to the ongoing efforts to create a common ethical terminology between the analytic and continental traditions within moral philosophy

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Julio Andrade

Themen in »Morally-Demanding Infinite Responsibility«

Levinasian reconceptualisation of supererogation Supererogatory actions vs supererogatory attitudes Moral iteration and moral aggregation Critique of Kantian and utilitarian supererogatory reductionism Moral incapacity which problematises autonomy Morally demanding infinite responsibility The Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas Synecdoche for Levinas’s project Constructing a Levinasian normativity Levinasian normativity is supererogatory Moral demandingness and infinite responsibility Analytic moral philosophers Ethics as first philosophy Constructing a Levinasian normativity Proximity and moral demandingness

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