- The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity
- Contributors
- Introduction
- The Unity of Normativity
- The Unity of Reasons
- The Logic of Reasons
- The Language of “Ought,” and Reasons
- Reflections on the Ideology of Reasons
- Internalism and Externalism about Reasons
- Motivating Reasons and Normative Reasons
- Psychologism and Anti-Psychologism about Motivating Reasons
- Reasons and Action Explanation
- Reasons and Ability
- The Metaphysics of Reasons
- Reasons Fundamentalism and Value
- Reason Fundamentalism and What Is Wrong With It
- Reasons, Evidence, and Explanations
- Constructivism About Reasons
- Constitutivism about Practical Reasons
- Practical Reasoning
- Weighing Reasons
- Underdetermination by Reasons
- Reasons, Choices, and Responsibility
- Reasons and Rationality
- Norms, Reasons, and Reasoning: A Guide Through Lewis Carroll’s Regress Argument
- Reasons and Theoretical Rationality
- The Place of Reasons in Epistemology
- Reasons for Belief and Normativity
- Epistemic Reasons, Evidence, and Defeaters
- Reasons and Perception
- Reasons and Testimony
- Knowledge, Understanding, and Reasons for Belief
- Pragmatic Reasons for Belief
- Instrumental Reasons
- Teleological Reasons
- Subjective and Objective Reasons
- Prudential and Moral Reasons
- Agent-Relative and Agent-Neutral Reasons
- Reasons and Moral Principles
- Reasons to Intend
- Reasons and Emotions
- Aesthetic Reasons
- Reliable and Unreliable Judgments About Reasons
- The Evolutionary Challenge to Knowing Moral Reasons
- Normativity and Concepts
- The Normativity of Meaning
- Normativity and Intentionality
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Reasons for action are traditionally divided into “motivating reasons,” which explain why someone did something, and “normative reasons,” which concern why she should (or should not) have done it. We explore various positions concerning both types of reason, and the relations between them. We discuss Davidson’s causal account of action, reasons internalism and externalism, constructivism, motivational internalism and externalism, and practical normative realism (PNR)—the view that there are truths concerning what you have reason to do (this is opposed by error theorists and noncognitivists, whose views we also briefly address). In our account of PNR, we distinguish between what you ought to do and what you have most reason to do, by appealing to the idea of reasonable credences. And we include two appendices, one resisting Lewis’s argument to the effect that advocates of PNR must reject motivational internalism, the other responding to a concern about future contingents.
Keywords: action, causal, constructivism, credence, externalism, internalism, motivation, normative, ought, reasons
David McNaughton is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Florida State University and at Keele University. He is the author of Moral Vision (1988) and (with Eve Garrard) of Forgiveness (2010), and of a number of papers on ethics, philosophy of religion, and the relations between the two. He has recently finished editing Joseph Butler’s moral writings for Oxford University Press, and is currently writing a book with Piers Rawling on their approach to practical reasons.
Piers Rawling is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Florida State University. He has wide-ranging interests, and has published papers on decision theory, ethics (with David McNaughton), philosophy of language, various other areas of philosophy, and quantum computing (with Stephen Selesnick). He is co-editor (with Alfred Mele) of The Oxford Handbook of Rationality (2004), and is currently writing a book with David McNaughton on their approach to practical reasons.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity
- Contributors
- Introduction
- The Unity of Normativity
- The Unity of Reasons
- The Logic of Reasons
- The Language of “Ought,” and Reasons
- Reflections on the Ideology of Reasons
- Internalism and Externalism about Reasons
- Motivating Reasons and Normative Reasons
- Psychologism and Anti-Psychologism about Motivating Reasons
- Reasons and Action Explanation
- Reasons and Ability
- The Metaphysics of Reasons
- Reasons Fundamentalism and Value
- Reason Fundamentalism and What Is Wrong With It
- Reasons, Evidence, and Explanations
- Constructivism About Reasons
- Constitutivism about Practical Reasons
- Practical Reasoning
- Weighing Reasons
- Underdetermination by Reasons
- Reasons, Choices, and Responsibility
- Reasons and Rationality
- Norms, Reasons, and Reasoning: A Guide Through Lewis Carroll’s Regress Argument
- Reasons and Theoretical Rationality
- The Place of Reasons in Epistemology
- Reasons for Belief and Normativity
- Epistemic Reasons, Evidence, and Defeaters
- Reasons and Perception
- Reasons and Testimony
- Knowledge, Understanding, and Reasons for Belief
- Pragmatic Reasons for Belief
- Instrumental Reasons
- Teleological Reasons
- Subjective and Objective Reasons
- Prudential and Moral Reasons
- Agent-Relative and Agent-Neutral Reasons
- Reasons and Moral Principles
- Reasons to Intend
- Reasons and Emotions
- Aesthetic Reasons
- Reliable and Unreliable Judgments About Reasons
- The Evolutionary Challenge to Knowing Moral Reasons
- Normativity and Concepts
- The Normativity of Meaning
- Normativity and Intentionality
- Index