Ethics and Practical Reasoning

Ethics 127 (2):353 - 382 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

How is practical reasoning related to ethical reasoning? The most common view is that they are identical: practical reasoning just is ethical reasoning. I criticize this view and then propose an alternative account of the relation between ethical thought and practical thought: ethical reasoning is reasoning about sound practical reasoning. I argue that this account of the relation between ethics and practical reasoning explains various phenomena that more familiar views leave unexplained. It also entails that the philosophy of action bears heavily on ethical inquiry.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1086/688741

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Practical reasoning.Robert Audi - 1989 - New York: Routledge.
Practical Reasoning: Goal-Driven, Knowledge-Based, Action-Guiding Argumentation.Douglas N. Walton - 1990 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Practical Reasoning.Bart Streumer - 2010 - In Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Action. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 244-251.
Practical Reasoning and Ethical Decision.Robert Audi - 2005 - New York: Routledge.
On Normative Practical Reasoning.Georg Spielthenner - 2013 - Abstracta 7 (1).
A logic of practical reasoning.Georg Spielthenner - 2007 - Acta Analytica 22 (2):139-153.
What is (Correct) Practical Reasoning?Julian Fink - 2013 - Acta Analytica 28 (4):471-482.
Computation, coherence, and ethical reasoning.Marcello Guarini - 2007 - Minds and Machines 17 (1):27-46.
Reasons for action and practical reasoning.Maria Alvarez - 2010 - Ratio 23 (4):355-373.
Practical aspects of theoretical reasoning.Gilbert Harman - 2004 - In Piers Rawling & Alfred R. Mele (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Rationality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 45--56.
Analogical Reasoning in Ethics.Georg Spielthenner - 2014 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (5):861-874.
Instrumental Reasoning Reconsidered.Georg Spielthenner - 2008 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 4 (1):59-76.
Ethics Done Right: Practical Reasoning as a Foundation for Moral Theory.Elijah Millgram - 2005 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Knowledge and practical reasoning.Igor Douven - 2008 - Dialectica 62 (1):101–118.
Co-Reading Aristotle’s Practical Reasoning.Mostafa Younesie - manuscript

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-02-03

Downloads
1,017 (#12,677)

6 months
110 (#34,438)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Matthew Silverstein
New York University, Abu Dhabi

Citations of this work

Defining Normativity.Stephen Finlay - 2019 - In Toh Kevin, Plunkett David & Shapiro Scott (eds.), Dimensions of Normativity: New Essays on Metaethics and Jurisprudence. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 62-104.
Inescapability and Normativity.Matthew Silverstein - 2012 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 6 (3):1-27.
Normative roles, conceptual variance, and ardent realism about normativity.David Plunkett - 2020 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 63 (5):509-534.
The Unity of Normative Thought.Jeremy David Fix - 2021 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 104 (3):639-658.
Practical cognition as volition.Jeremy David Fix - 2021 - European Journal of Philosophy 30 (3):1077-1091.

View all 14 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Actions, Reasons, and Causes.Donald Davidson - 1963 - Journal of Philosophy 60 (23):685.
Free agency.Gary Watson - 1975 - Journal of Philosophy 72 (April):205-20.
What Happens When Someone Acts?J. David Velleman - 1992 - Mind 101 (403):461-481.
A plea for excuses.John Austin - 1957 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 57:1--30.

View all 21 references / Add more references