What is the utilitarian view on supererogation?
Technically, according to utilitarianism, no acts are supererogatory – for each act, either you should do it or you should not do it. Even on those utilitarian definitions of “should”, “ought”, etc which admit of positive and/or negative degrees, there is not some class of acts that are “better than is morally required”, for utilitarian morality always requires the best [2]. However, this should not be misinterpreted: on minor issues, the feeling of the agent may be all important in determining the value of the act. So Utility does in fact say, of many things, “Do it, if you like; and if you don’t like it, don’t do it.” When this is recognized, it may be that the apparent appeal of some acts being supererogatory is substantially diminished.
