More than one way to be right

On page 11, Adams states that there is probably only one thing to do that is truly right, whereas there are many things that are good. This seems like a very different take from Taylor’s, who discussed the idea of supereragatory virtue: virtue that goes above and beyond the concept of rightness, in an effort to maximize the good. The two ideas are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but Taylor’s view seems to set the bar higher for goodness, whereas Adams’s view seems to set the bar higher for rightness. Adams seems to argue that the right action is the one that fulfills someone’s duty and obligation, but this seems to assume that there will always be only one right action, no more, and no less, when in fact obligations cannot always be fulfilled and there can be more than one way to fulfill an obligation (for instance, you may owe someone a favor, and a valid way of paying back that favor might be taking them out to the movies or taking them out to the restaurant). Contrast this with Taylor’s idea of virtue, which doesn’t view virtue as a binary thing, but rather, as something that can occur in greater and lesser amounts. This scale of virtue should apply to rightness to, with actions being more and less right, not simply right or wrong.