Rationality and Possessing Normative Reasons
摘要
Epistemicism about reason possession holds that one possesses a fact as a normative reason just in case one has appropriate epistemic access to that fact. This paper argues that (i) the purely epistemic view of reason possession is untenable, as it fails to account for the role of reasoning abilities in possessing normative reasons; (ii) possessing a normative reason requires both the general and specific ability to respond to that reason; (iii) these abilities consist of four particular components—the deliberative ability, the enkratic ability, the instrumental ability, and the executive ability; and (iv) they should be analyzed in terms of dispositions to respond correctly to one’s normative reasons when one tries to do so. By way of defense and further elaboration, I respond to a series of objections to this new ability-based account of reason possession.