Constitutivism about Practical Reasons
In Daniel Star (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 367-394 (2018)
Abstract
This paper introduces constitutivism about practical reason, which is the view that we can justify certain normative claims by showing that agents become committed to these claims simply in virtue of acting. According to this view, action has a certain structural feature – a constitutive aim, principle, or standard – that both constitutes events as actions and generates a standard of assessment for action. We can use this standard of assessment to derive normative claims. In short, the authority of certain normative claims arises from the bare fact that we are agents. This essay explains the constitutivst strategy, surveys the extant attempts to generate constitutivist theories, and considers the problems and prospects for the theory.Author's Profile
My notes
Similar books and articles
Deriving Ethics from Action: A Nietzschean Version of Constitutivism.Paul Katsafanas - 2011 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 83 (3):620-660.
Constitutivism and normativity: a qualified defence.Stefano Bertea - 2013 - Philosophical Explorations 16 (1):81-95.
Korsgaard's constitutive arguments and the principles of practical reason.Ariela Tubert - 2011 - Philosophical Quarterly 61 (243):343-362.
Shmagency revisited.David Enoch - 2011 - In Michael Brady (ed.), New Waves in Metaethics. Palgrave-Macmillan.
Reasons for Belief, Reasons for Action, the Aim of Belief, and the Aim of Action.Daniel Whiting - 2014 - In Clayton Littlejohn & John Turri (eds.), Epistemic Norms: New Essays on Action, Belief, and Assertion. Oxford University Press.
Epistemic Disagreement and Practical Disagreement.Christopher Cowie - 2014 - Erkenntnis 79 (1):191-209.
Formal principles and the form of a law.Andrews Reath - 2010 - In Andrews Reath & Jens Timmermann (eds.), Kant's Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide. Cambridge University Press.
Constitutivism and the Inescapability of Agency.Luca Ferrero - 2009 - Oxford Studies in Metaethics 4:303-333.
Structural Irrationality.Thomas Scanlon - 2007 - In Geoffrey Brennan, Robert Goodin, Frank Jackson & Michael Smith (eds.), Common Minds: Themes From the Philosophy of Philip Pettit. Clarendon Press.
Normative Restrictions on Input to Practical Reflection.Vaughn Huckfeldt - 2010 - Philosophical Papers 39 (1):29-52.
Analytics
Added to PP
2013-07-18
Downloads
2,396 (#1,969)
6 months
165 (#3,690)
2013-07-18
Downloads
2,396 (#1,969)
6 months
165 (#3,690)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
In Defense of Constitutivism About Epistemic Normativity.David Horst - 2022 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 103 (2):232-258.
Complicity and Conditions of Agency.Herlinde Pauer-Studer - 2018 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 35 (4):643-660.
References found in this work
Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity.Christine Korsgaard - 2009 - Oxford University Press.