Intellectual Isolation

Mind 127 (506):491-520 (2018)
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Abstract

Intellectualism is the widespread view that practical reason is a species of theoretical reason, distinguished from others by its objects: reasons to act. I argue that if practical reason is a species of theoretical reason, practical judgments by nature have nothing to do with action. If they have nothing to do with action, I cannot act from my representation of reasons for me to act. If I cannot act from those representations, those reasons cannot exist. If they cannot exist, neither can a species of theoretical reason about them. Intellectualism is thus self-undermining.

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Jeremy David Fix
University of Oxford

Citations of this work

The Instrumental Rule.Jeremy David Fix - 2020 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 (4):444-462.
Wanting and willing.Eric Marcus - 2020 - European Journal of Philosophy 29 (4):887-899.
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.

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References found in this work

Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals.Immanuel Kant - 1785 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Thomas E. Hill & Arnulf Zweig.
Agency and answerability: selected essays.Gary Watson - 2004 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Intention.P. L. Heath - 1960 - Philosophical Quarterly 10 (40):281.
Engaging Reason.Joseph Raz - 1999 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66 (3):745-748.

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