The Scale of Atomic Reasons
摘要
Normative reasons unquestionably have scalar features: some are more relevant, others more important, others carry a negative “weight.” But what is their scale? This chapter investigates this question by applying measurement theory and using linguistic data, mathematical tools, and philosophical discussion, with the chief aim of investigating the problem of reason aggregation. A solution would have significant practical import because, given a complete “list” of relevant reasons, we would be able to combine them in order to determinatively deliberate about what we ought to do. Conversely, if no principled solution to the problem of reason aggregation exists, this would raise serious worries about the very possibility of normative theorizing. This chapter will show that some of these problems depend on conceptualizing reasons as atomic.