Right in some respects:: reasons as evidence
Right in some respects:: reasons as evidence
What is a normative reason for acting? In this paper, I introduce and defend a novel answer to this question. The starting-point is the view that reasons are right-makers. By exploring difficulties facing it, I arrive at an alternative, according to which reasons are evidence of respects in which it is right to perform an act, for example, that it keeps a promise. This is similar to the proposal that reasons for a person to act are evidence that she ought to do so; however, as I explain, it differs from that proposal in two significant ways. As a result, I argue, the evidence-based account of reasons I advance shares the advantages of its predecessor while avoiding many of the difficulties facing it.
2191-2208
Whiting, Daniel
c0847bb4-963e-470d-92a2-5c8aae5d5aef
September 2018
Whiting, Daniel
c0847bb4-963e-470d-92a2-5c8aae5d5aef
Abstract
What is a normative reason for acting? In this paper, I introduce and defend a novel answer to this question. The starting-point is the view that reasons are right-makers. By exploring difficulties facing it, I arrive at an alternative, according to which reasons are evidence of respects in which it is right to perform an act, for example, that it keeps a promise. This is similar to the proposal that reasons for a person to act are evidence that she ought to do so; however, as I explain, it differs from that proposal in two significant ways. As a result, I argue, the evidence-based account of reasons I advance shares the advantages of its predecessor while avoiding many of the difficulties facing it.
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Right in Some Respects PhilStudies DW
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s11098-017-0954-x
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 August 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 August 2017
Published date: September 2018
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Local EPrints ID: 412909
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/412909
ISSN: 0031-8116
PURE UUID: 957e1657-3367-48e5-86a6-f3c2c305694d
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Date deposited: 08 Aug 2017 16:31
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:35
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