
Contents
Part front matter for Part Two On Practical Reasoning
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Published:December 2011
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Reasoning is central to the way we recognize and come to respond to reasons. It is thus central to our capacity, as rational agents, to appreciate and respond to normative considerations. Reasons are facts, aspects of the world. But our reaction to them is necessarily mediated by awareness of them. Chapter Six provides a transition from the discussion in Part One to the concerns of Part Two by considering some of the familiar difficulties in understanding that relationship: the relationship between the facts that are reasons and our beliefs or knowledge of what reasons there are.
Thinking of practical reasoning brings in a crucial factor, so far ignored: that reasons conflict, and much practical reasoning is about the proper response to such conflicts. Ignoring this fact undermines the value of Aristotle’s practical syllogism, as will be argued in Chapter Seven. Some additional terminology (some of it briefly used in Chapter Two) will be explained as the need arises. Reasons will also be referred to as pro tanto reasons, to underline the fact that they may conflict, while avoiding commitment as to whether they defeat conflicting reasons. Reasons which are not defeated by all the conflicting reasons will be referred to as sufficient, or adequate, and if they also defeat the conflicting reasons they are conclusive. This last clarification brings out an important ambiguity, usually left to the context to resolve, namely whether one refers to the reasons for a particular action in the plural or singularly: sometimes when saying that the reason for an action defeats all the conflicting reasons one means that all the reasons for that action, taken together, defeat the conflicting ones. Chapter Eight will suggest that at least in some respects that notion, the notion of the case for an option (without differentiating its different components, the different reasons that make it up) is the primary one. But before we get there Chapter Seven considers the distinctness of practical reasoning.
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