Varieties of Practical ReasoningElijah Millgram Practical reasoning is the study of how to figure out what to do. It is of particular importance to ethics. Indeed, new developments in practical reasoning promise to break through long-standing ethical and moral dilemmas. Practical reasoning also has consequences for philosophy of mind, value theory, and the social sciences. This anthology provides an overview of this important area of philosophy. Over the past two decades the field of practical reasoning has changed rapidly, with a small number of entrenched positions giving way to a healthy profusion of competing views. This book covers a broad spectrum of positions on practical reasoning--from the nihilist view that there are no legitimate forms of practical inference, and hence no such thing as practical reasoning, to inferential expressivism, which holds that our desires express commitments to arbitrarily different kinds of practical inferences (as when the desire to stay dry makes explicit the commitment to inferring the need to carry an umbrella if rain is forecast). Underlying all the contributions is the question of how one should go about determining what the legitimate forms of practical reasoning are. |
Contents
Chapter | 9 |
Chapter | 20 |
Internal and External Reasons with Postscript | 77 |
Chapter 5 | 99 |
Chapter 7 | 127 |
Taking Plans Seriously | 203 |
Chapter 10 | 221 |
Chapter 11 | 237 |
Chapter 14 | 301 |
Chapter 15 | 331 |
Chapter 16 | 355 |
Chapter 17 | 373 |
The Idea of Perfection | 403 |
Chapter 19 | 437 |
Chapter 20 | 465 |
Contributors | 481 |
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Common terms and phrases
accept agent akrasia Anscombe argue argument Aristotle belief Bernard Williams Cambridge categorical imperatives choice choose claim coherence commitment conception considerations David Wiggins decision deliberation deliberative desire fulfillment direction of fit discussion elements Elijah Millgram emotional Ethics eudaimonia example explain fact final ends further end goal hedonism human Hume Humean instrumental instrumentalist internal internalist intuition irrational judgment justification Kant Kant's kind Korsgaard maieutic end maxim means means-end Millgram modus ponens moral motivating reasons normative normative reason notion object observationalist one's options Owen Wingrave Oxford particular person philosophers Plato pleasure possible practical inference practical rationality practical reasoning preference premises principle problem Protagoras psychological pursue question reason to follow reasons for action requirement rules satisficing sense simply skepticism Socrates someone sort subjective motivational set suppose syllogism technē theoretical things thought tion underlying intention universality test University Press Williams