Asymmetry, Scope, and Rational Consistency

Croatian Journal of Philosophy 10 (2):109-130 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Suppose rationality requires you to A if you believe you ought to A. Suppose you believe that you ought to A. How can you satisfy this requirement? One way seems obvious. You can satisfy this requirement by A-ing. But can you also satisfy it by stopping to believe that you ought to A? Recently, it has been argued that this second option is not a genuine way of satisfying the above requirement. Conditional requirements of rationality do not have two ‘symmetric’, but only one ‘asymmetric’ satisfaction condition. This paper explores the consequences of this argument for a theory of the requirements of rationality. I seek to show that thisview conflicts with another powerful intuition about the requirements of rationality, i.e. ‘rational consistency’: if rationality requires you to X, then it is not the case that rationality requires you to not-X. I shall conclude that ‘asymmetric’ satisfying is based on a misleading intuition, for which we should not sacrifice ‘rational consistency’.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

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

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Is the Enkratic Principle a Requirement of Rationality?Andrew Reisner - 2013 - Organon F: Medzinárodný Časopis Pre Analytickú Filozofiu 20 (4):436-462.
Wide or narrow scope?John Broome - 2007 - Mind 116 (462):359-370.
The scope of rational requirements.John Brunero - 2010 - Philosophical Quarterly 60 (238):28-49.
Rational Requirements and 'Rational' Akrasia.Edward S. Hinchman - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 166 (3):529-552.
How to be a Cognitivist about Practical Reason.Jacob Ross - 2009 - Oxford Studies in Metaethics 4:243-281.
Why be rational.Niko Kolodny - 2005 - Mind 114 (455):509-563.
Wide and narrow scope.Sam Shpall - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 163 (3):717-736.
Against requirements of rationality.Anthony W. Price - 2008 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 108 (1pt2):157-176.
The Enkratic Requirement.Allen Coates - 2013 - European Journal of Philosophy 21 (2):320-333.
Are there process-requirements of rationality?Julian Fink - 2011 - Organon F: Medzinárodný Časopis Pre Analytickú Filozofiu 18 (4):475-488.
Unifying the requirements of rationality.Andrew Reisner - 2009 - Philosophical Explorations 12 (3):243-260.
The symmetry of rational requirements.Jonathan Way - 2011 - Philosophical Studies 155 (2):227-239.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-01-09

Downloads
201 (#69,204)

6 months
17 (#80,383)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Julian Fink
Universität Bayreuth

Citations of this work

The Normativity of Rationality.Benjamin Kiesewetter - 2017 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The scope of instrumental reason.Mark Schroeder - 2004 - Philosophical Perspectives 18 (1):337–364.
Does rationality give us reasons?John Broome - 2005 - Philosophical Issues 15 (1):321–337.

Add more references