Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy

Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy PDF Author: B. Verbeek
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789401599832
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description

Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy

Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy PDF Author: B. Verbeek
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789401599832
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description


Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy

Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy PDF Author: B. Verbeek
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401599823
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
Many academic authors incur debts in the production of their work, many of which are intellectual. I am no exception. One of my intellectual debts is to three remarkable books, which formed the starting point for my thinking about norms. The first of these books is well known among philosophers: David Lewis' Convention. In vintage Lewisian prose, the book gives a lucid and convincing conventionalist analysis of semantic norms. The second 1985 dissertation Wederkerige book is Govert den Hartogh's Verwachtingen (Mutual Expectations). Partly because it was written in Dutch - my native tongue -partly because of the occasionally impenetrable style, it never got the attention it deserves. In that book, Den Hartogh extends Lewis' analysis of semantic norms to moral norms. Den Hartogh introduced the notion of cooperative virtues that is the focus of much of this book. The third book is a book on economics, largely ignored by economists, which only lately has started to receive some recognition among philosophers: Robert Sugden's The Economics of Rights, Co operation and Welfare. Sugden's book explains the emergence and stability of norms in terms of social evolution. Though all three books develop a of norms, their arguments and constructions are conventionalist account very different. Lewis and Den Hartogh take the picture of rational man deliberating about his course of action very serious; Sugden rejects this picture as unrealistic and unnecessary.

Instrumental Rationality

Instrumental Rationality PDF Author: John Brunero
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191063940
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rationality requires that we intend the means that we believe are necessary for achieving our ends. Instrumental Rationality explores the formulation and status of this requirement of means-ends coherence. In particular, it is concerned with understanding what means-ends coherence requires of us as believers and agents, and why. Means-ends coherence is a genuine requirement of rationality and cannot be explained away as a myth, confused with a disjunction of requirements to have, or not have, specific attitudes. Nor is means-ends coherence strongly normative, such that we always ought to be means-ends coherent. A promising strategy for assessing why this requirement should exist is to consider the constitutive aim of intention. Just as belief has a constitutive aim (truth) that can explain some of the theoretical requirements of consistency and coherence governing beliefs, intention has a constitutive aim (here called "controlled action") that can explain some of the requirements of consistency and coherence governing intentions. We can therefore better understand means-ends coherence by understanding the constitutive aims of both of the attitudes governed by the requirement, intention, and belief.

Rational Powers in Action

Rational Powers in Action PDF Author: Sergio Tenenbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192592270
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human actions unfold over time, in pursuit of ends that are not fully specified in advance. Rational Powers in Action locates these features of the human condition at the heart of a new theory of instrumental rationality. Where many theories of rational agency focus on instantaneous choices between sharply defined outcomes, treating the temporally extended and partially open-ended character of action as an afterthought, this book argues that the deep structure of instrumental rationality can only be understood if we see how it governs the pursuit of long-term, indeterminate ends. These are ends that cannot be realized through a single momentary action, and whose content leaves partly open what counts as realizing the end. Sergio Tenenbaum argues that we need to focus on temporal duration and the indeterminacy of ends in intentional action, even to explain the rational governance of relatively simple actions. Theories of moment-by-moment preference maximization, or indeed any understanding of instrumental rationality on the basis of momentary mental items, cannot capture the fundamental structure of our instrumentally rational capacities. Tenenbaum provides a new theory of instrumental rationality as rationality in action.

Rightness as Fairness

Rightness as Fairness PDF Author: Marcus Arvan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137541814
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rightness as Fairness provides a uniquely fruitful method of 'principled fair negotiation' for resolving applied moral and political issues that requires merging principled debate with real-world negotiation.

Rational Powers in Action

Rational Powers in Action PDF Author: Sergio Tenenbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192592262
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human actions unfold over time, in pursuit of ends that are not fully specified in advance. Rational Powers in Action locates these features of the human condition at the heart of a new theory of instrumental rationality. Where many theories of rational agency focus on instantaneous choices between sharply defined outcomes, treating the temporally extended and partially open-ended character of action as an afterthought, this book argues that the deep structure of instrumental rationality can only be understood if we see how it governs the pursuit of long-term, indeterminate ends. These are ends that cannot be realized through a single momentary action, and whose content leaves partly open what counts as realizing the end. Sergio Tenenbaum argues that we need to focus on temporal duration and the indeterminacy of ends in intentional action, even to explain the rational governance of relatively simple actions. Theories of moment-by-moment preference maximization, or indeed any understanding of instrumental rationality on the basis of momentary mental items, cannot capture the fundamental structure of our instrumentally rational capacities. Tenenbaum provides a new theory of instrumental rationality as rationality in action.

Following the Rules

Following the Rules PDF Author: Joseph Heath
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0195370295
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
For centuries, philosophers have been puzzled by the fact that people often respect moral obligations as a matter of principle, setting aside considerations of self-interest. This text shows how rule-following can be understood as an essential element of rational action.

The Moral Commonwealth

The Moral Commonwealth PDF Author: Philip Selznick
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520089341
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 572

Get Book Here

Book Description
Establishes the intellectual foundations of a new movement in American thought: communitarianism. Emerging in part as a response to the excesses of American individualism, communitarianism seeks to restore the balance between individual rights and social responsibilities.

Rationality, Social Action and Moral Judgment

Rationality, Social Action and Moral Judgment PDF Author: Stuart Toddington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
The isolation of law as a discipline has ensured that the theoretical preoccupations of legal scholars have remained insulated from the social sciences. But the concept of law and its relationship to morality is of crucial significance to social theory, and this impressive book examines some of the major sociological and jurisprudential writers on rationality and its relationship to action. Analysing the interdependency of philosophy, sociology and law, it shows that the central methodological problems of the social sciences require an objective morality for their resolution - a theory of Natural Law. Indeed, this challenging investigation illustrates that such a theory is available, and that a social science built upon these ethical foundations must serve as the basis of any rational legal praxis.

Practical Reasoning and Ethical Decision

Practical Reasoning and Ethical Decision PDF Author: Robert Audi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134219210
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book Here

Book Description
Presenting the most comprehensive and lucid account of the topic currently available, Robert Audi's "Practical Reasoning and Ethical Decision" is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of reason in ethics or the nature of human action. The first part of the book is a detailed critical overview of the influential theories of practical reasoning found in Aristotle, Hume and Kant, whilst the second part examines practical reasoning in the light of important topics in moral psychology - weakness of will, self-deception, rationalization and others. In the third part, Audi describes the role of moral principles in practical reasoning and clarifies the way practical reasoning underlies ethical decisions. He formulates a comprehensive set of concrete ethical principles, explains how they apply to reasoning about what to do, and shows how practical reasoning guides moral conduct.