Justifying reasons, motivating reasons, and agent relativism in ethics

Philosophical Studies 118 (3):373-399 (2004)
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Abstract

According to agent relativism, each person's moral requirements are relative to her desires or interests. That is, whether a person morally ought to ø depends on what interests or desires she has. Some philosophers charge that the main argument for agent relativism trades on an ambiguity in the term "reason," "reason for action,'' or the like. This paper shows that although the argument for agent relativism may indeed harbor an ambiguity, the ambiguity is no Achilles’ heel. To remove it is not to discredit the argument, but to uncover the strongest form of it, the form that makes agent relativism tenacious.

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John J. Tilley
Indiana University Indianapolis

Citations of this work

Dismissive Replies to "Why Should I Be Moral?".John J. Tilley - 2009 - Social Theory and Practice 35 (3):341-368.
Toward a Benign Moral Relativism.Yong Huang - 2014 - In Yang Xiao & Yong Huang, Moral Relativism and Chinese Philosophy: David Wong and His Critics. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 149-180.
Logical Form.Bryan R. Weaver & Kevin Scharp - 2019 - In Bryan R. Weaver & Kevin Scharp, Semantics for Reasons. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 24-45.

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References found in this work

The moral problem.Michael R. Smith - 1994 - Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell.
Practical reason and norms.Joseph Raz - 1975 - London: Hutchinson.
The Myth of Morality.Richard Joyce - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Moral realism.Peter Railton - 1986 - Philosophical Review 95 (2):163-207.
Practical Reality.Jonathan Dancy - 2000 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.

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