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Williams on Practical Reason
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Bernard Williams’s controversial view about reasons for action is the topic of this essay. The essay explains Williams’s internalist account of reasons for action as an improvement on Donald Davidson’s account. It then corrects Williams’s criticism of externalist accounts of reasons for action by conceding that such accounts are viable as long as they do not imply that the reasons a person has for doing an action can explain his or her doing it. The concession follows from acknowledging the very different program of studying reasons in ethics exemplified in the work of Kurt Baier. Once the correction is made to Williams’s criticism, the essay offers a defense of his view against the criticisms of T. M. Scanlon and Christine Korsgaard.
Title: Williams on Practical Reason
Description:
Bernard Williams’s controversial view about reasons for action is the topic of this essay.
The essay explains Williams’s internalist account of reasons for action as an improvement on Donald Davidson’s account.
It then corrects Williams’s criticism of externalist accounts of reasons for action by conceding that such accounts are viable as long as they do not imply that the reasons a person has for doing an action can explain his or her doing it.
The concession follows from acknowledging the very different program of studying reasons in ethics exemplified in the work of Kurt Baier.
Once the correction is made to Williams’s criticism, the essay offers a defense of his view against the criticisms of T.
M.
Scanlon and Christine Korsgaard.
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