Practical Reasons and Rationality 12+

📕 We think of ourselves as having reasons for action. But what is it about us as rational agents, about our rationality or our being rational agents, such that we have reasons for action? How are we motivated by a consideration in a manner that nonrational animals are incapable of? The most common answer, that our ability to form desires enables our having reasons for action, is problematic in a number of ways; instead, our ability to form beliefs about value provides the correct account. From this it follows that there are few motivational restrictions on what can be a reason for action for a particular agent. It is in the theory of value and not in the theory of action that limitations on reasons must be sought. This discussion will be relevant to those interested in the theory of reasons, the distinction between the practically rational and non­rational, the relationship between desires and values, and the limitations that a theory of motivation may place on a theory of reasons for action.