Abstract

Grice begins this chapter by discussing to what extent the notion of variable rationality can be derived from that of flat rationality, and thus from the concept of a rational being alone. He then draws a distinction between ‘explanatory’ and ‘justificatory’ reasons, as well as ‘personal’ reasons that combine the two by being reasons acted upon and regarded as justifying by the agent. Finally, he introduces a structural representation for practical and alethic justificatory reasons that shows that ‘common modals’ are used univocally on both sides of the practical/alethic divide. This representation consists of a single modal operator ‘Acc’, two mood‐operators ‘!’ and ‘⊥’, and a phrastic ‘r’ that these operators apply to.