The notion of supererogation—going above and beyond the call of duty—is typically discussed in a moral context. However, in this paper, we argue for the existence of rationally supererogatory actions: that is, of actions that go above and beyond the call of rational duty. In order to establish the existence of such actions, we first need to overcome the so-called paradox of supererogation. That is, we need to provide some explanation for why, if some act is rationally optimal, it is not the

more »

... that we are rationally required to carry out the act. We argue that a response to this 'paradox' can be found by reflecting on normative conflicts: cases where what is best according to some normative domain is different to what is best according to some other normative domain.