Abstract

The introduction sets the stage for what follows. Constructivism is presented as a position that seeks to explain why some considerations are reasons for or against certain actions. It thus disagrees with fundamentalist views which deny that a general, yet informative explanation of this kind is available. Constructivism also differs from Humean views that offer such an explanation in terms of the agent’s actual or hypothetical desires. By contrast, constructivism suggests that reasons can be explained as an upshot of our capacity to reason. The introduction also highlights that the constructivist view to be developed in the book is a meta-ethical, rather than a first-order normative position, and that it offers an account only of practical reasons, leaving, e.g., epistemic reasons aside.