TY - JOUR
T1 - Clearing space for extreme psychologism about reasons
AU - Mitova, Veli
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 South African Journal of Philosophy.
PY - 2016/9/2
Y1 - 2016/9/2
N2 - Are reasons for action facts or psychological states? There are two answers in the literature on the ontology of reasons. According to the Standard Story, normative reasons are facts, while motivating reasons are psychological states. According to the factualist, both normative and motivating reasons are facts. In this paper I argue that neither of these views is satisfactory. The Standard Story errs in thinking that the two kinds of reasons are different ontological entities. The factualist gets this right, but incurs some distasteful ontological commitments by thinking of motivating reasons as facts. We should, thus, give a proper hearing to the only serious logically possible alternative to the two existing views: both motivating and normative reasons are psychological states.
AB - Are reasons for action facts or psychological states? There are two answers in the literature on the ontology of reasons. According to the Standard Story, normative reasons are facts, while motivating reasons are psychological states. According to the factualist, both normative and motivating reasons are facts. In this paper I argue that neither of these views is satisfactory. The Standard Story errs in thinking that the two kinds of reasons are different ontological entities. The factualist gets this right, but incurs some distasteful ontological commitments by thinking of motivating reasons as facts. We should, thus, give a proper hearing to the only serious logically possible alternative to the two existing views: both motivating and normative reasons are psychological states.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984815350&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02580136.2016.1206394
DO - 10.1080/02580136.2016.1206394
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84984815350
SN - 0258-0136
VL - 35
SP - 293
EP - 301
JO - South African Journal of Philosophy
JF - South African Journal of Philosophy
IS - 3
ER -