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Benjamin Kiesewetter, You ought to ϕ only if you may believe that you ought to ϕ, The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 66, Issue 265, October 2016, Pages 760–782, https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqw012
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Abstract
In this paper, I present an argument for the claim that you ought to do something only if you may believe that you ought to do it. More exactly, I defend the following principle about normative reasons: An agent A has decisive reason to ϕ only if she also has sufficient reason to believe that she has decisive reason to ϕ. I argue that this principle follows from the plausible assumption that it must be possible for an agent to respond correctly to her reasons. In conclusion, I discuss some implications of this argument (given that some other standard assumptions about reasons hold). One such implication is that we are always in a position to be justified in believing all truths about what we have decisive reason (or ought) to do.