The Domain of Reasons

by Skorupski, John

• ISBN13: 9780199664672
• ISBN10: 0199664676
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-01-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is about normativity and reasons. By the end, however, the subject becomes the relation between self, thought, and world. If we understand normativity, we are on the road to understanding this relation. John Skorupski argues that all normative properties are reducible to reason relations, so that the sole normative ingredient in any normative concept is the concept of a reason. This is a concept fundamental to all thought. It is pervasive (actions, beliefs, and sentiments all fall within its range), primitive (all other normative concepts are reducible to it), and constitutive of the idea of thought itself. Thinking is sensitivity to reasons. Thought in the full sense of autonomous cognition is possible only for a being sensitive to reasons and capable of deliberating about them. In Part II of the book Skorupski examines epistemic reasons, and shows that aprioricity, necessity, evidence, and probability, which may not seem to be normative at all, are in fact normative concepts analysable in terms of the concept of a reason. In Part III he shows the same for the concept of a person's good, and for moral concepts including the concept of a right. Part IV moves to the epistemology and metaphysics of reasons. When we make claims about reasons to believe, reasons to feel, or reasons to act we are asserting genuine propositions: judgeable, truth-apt contents. But these normative propositions must be distinguished from factual propositions, for they do not represent states of affairs. So Skorupski's ambitious theory of normativity has broad and deep implications for philosophy. It shows how reflection on the logic, epistemology, and ontology of reasons finally leads us to an account of the interplay of self, thought, and world.

Author Biography

John Skorupski is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews.

Table of Contents

Preface
Synopsis
I. Introduction
Part One: The Structure of Normative Concepts
II. Reasons
III. Indexicality, Universalisability and the Range of Reasons
IV. Normativity
V. Warrant
Part Two: Epistemic Reasons
VI. The A Priori
VII. Analyticity
VIII. Modality
IX. Non-monotonic Norms
Part Three: Evaluative and Practical Reasons
X. Rational Explanation: Belief, Feeling and Will
XI. Reasons and Feelings: (i) The Bridge Principle and the Concept of a Person's Good
XII. Reasons and Feelings: (ii) Moral Concepts
XIII. Impartiality (i) The Principle of Good
XIV. Impartiality (ii) The Demand Principle
XV. Moral Judgement and Feeling
Part Four: The Normative View
XVI. The Epistemology of Reason Relations
XVII. The Ontology of Reason Relations
XVIII. Rules, Norms and Concepts
XIX. Self and Self-Determination
XX. The Critique of Reasons
Appendix: Symbols, Terms and Theses
References
Index