Reasons

by Eric Wiland

When we say we ‘act for a reason', what do we mean?


And what do reasons have to do with being good or bad?


Introducing readers to a foundational topic in ethics, Eric Wiland considers the reasons for which we act. You do things for reasons, and reasons in some sense justify what you do. Further, your reasons belong to you, and you know the reasons for which you act in a distinctively first-personal way. The book lays out and critically reviews some of the most popular contemporary accounts of how reasons can function in all these ways, accounts such as psychologism, factualism, hybrid theories, constitutivist theories, and finally Anscombean views of reasons. Reasons also includes a brief guide to further reading to help readers master this important topic in contemporary writing in ethics and the philosophy of action.

Genres: Philosophy

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasons is a pretty good introduction to current debates on the rationality of action. Wiland covers psychologistic, factualist, constitutivist and Anscombean accounts of what constitutes a rational action. In the end, he sides largely with Anscombe and her followers. Though the book is well written and, at times, entertaining, I found there to be a large number of typos - almost one per page. This is especially frustrating because the text itself is technical and, at times, dense. So a typo can significantly change the meaning of a statement. Take, for example, this statement: "[t]o meet the factualist challenge, we need to think more about how a consideration like 'that there are rats in my yard' is or is related to a reason for buying poison" (156). Maybe newer editions have these typos fixed but at least in the edition I read, I found they got in the way of enjoying the text.