Reasons for Action

This volume contains eleven essays on practical reason by leading and emerging philosophers.

David Sobel (Edited by), Steven Wall (Edited by)

9781107403574, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 October 2011

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Sobel and Wall's collection Reasons for Action brings together twelve important essays about reasons for action, practical reasoning, and rational choice, by some of the leading philosophers in the field today (as well as a useful introduction by the editors themselves). The essays approach these issues from several different points of view, but every one of these essays is an illuminating contribution to the contemporary debates. Everyone who is seriously interested in these questions will find their understanding enriched by a careful study of these essays.' Ralph Wedgwood, University of Oxford

What are our reasons for acting? Morality purports to give us these reasons, and so do norms of prudence and the laws of society. The theory of practical reason assesses the authority of these potentially competing claims, and for this reason philosophers with a wide range of interests have converged on the topic of reasons for action. This volume contains eleven essays on practical reason by leading and emerging philosophers. Topics include the differences between practical and theoretical rationality, practical conditionals and the wide-scope ought, the explanation of action, the sources of reasons, and the relationship between morality and reasons for action. The volume will be essential reading for all philosophers interested in ethics and practical reason.

1. Introduction David Sobel and Steven Wall
2. Intention, belief, and instrumental rationality Michael Bratman
3. Reasons: practical and adaptive Joseph Raz
4. The explanatory role of being rational Michael Smith
5. Practical competence and fluent agency Peter Railton
6. Practical conditionals James Dreier
7. Authority and second-personal reasons for acting Stephen Darwall
8. Promises, reasons, and normative powers Gary Watson
9. Regret and irrational action Justin D'Arms and Daniel Jacobson
10. Mackie's motivational argument Philip Clark
11. The truth in ecumenical expressivism Michael Ridge
12. Voluntarist reasons Ruth Chang.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP]