Lógica e psicologia moral da santidade e do heroísmo

Abstract

This thesis addresses supererogatory acts, that were brought to the fore in Philosophy by Urmson in the seminal article entitled Saints and Heroes, which characterized the supererogatory acts as acts that go beyond duty, i.e., acts that are not mandatory. Thus, Urmson shows that moral life is not restricted to virtues or moral duties. There is a gap in the traditional classification of moral acts which generally comprise prohibited, mandatory and optional acts, that are compatible with offensive, commendable and indifferent acts. The supererogatory acts break with this established structure because they are optional and commendable, that is, they are hybrid acts whose aspects belong to different dimensions of morality, namely: deontic and axiological. The general purpose of this investigation is to understand, from different perspectives (historical, logical and psychological), the nature of supererogatory acts. The first objective is to address the problem of the characterization of supererogatory acts. In the ancient and in the medieval period, there are acts that can be compared to the supererogatory acts insofar as they have similar general characteristics with the contemporary approach. In the contemporary period, the main problem is related to the adequacy of what can be understood as a supererogatory. The second objective is to investigate the logical structure of supererogatory acts. The main thesis is to argue towards a hybrid dimension of the supererogatory acts that originate from the deontic and axiological dimensions, from the deontic logic to a model analogous to Vasiliev’s, replacing the square of oppositions with a triangle of oppositions. The third objective is to investigate the moral psychology of supererogatory acts. This interest arises from the possibility of having different psychological factors acting on the agents in relation to the factors present in regular behavior. What is the nature of the motivation that leads to supererogatory acts? To what extent do supererogatory acts depend on character and virtues? Can it be said that acts of saints and heroes are genuinely altruistic or are they carried out for self-interest? The fourth objective is to examine the practical meaning of supererogatory acts, that is, of what they can teach us morally. Supererogatory acts are valuable acts in themselves, with specific configurations, but also in practical terms, therefore, they are of interest to moral philosophy. They distinguish themselves from other moral acts by incorporating a sense of moral experience that can be understood as a challenge phenomenology, as stimulating our behavior towards more distant and less common regions.