Reasons without rationalism

Modern philosophy has been vexed by the question "Why should I be moral?" and by doubts about the rational authority of moral virtue. In Reasons without Rationalism, Kieran Setiya shows that these doubts rest on a mistake. The "should" of practical reason cannot be understood apart from the virtues of character, including such moral virtues as justice and benevolence, and the considerations to which the virtues make one sensitive thereby count as reasons to act.
Proposing a new framework for debates about practical reason, Setiya argues that the only alternative to this "virtue theory" is a form of ethical rationalism in which reasons derive from the nature of intentional action. Despite its recent popularity, however, ethical rationalism is false. It wrongly assumes that we act "under the guise of the good," or it relies on dubious views about intention and motivation. It follows from the failure of rationalism that the virtue theory is true: we cannot be fully good without the perfection of practical reason, or have that perfection without being good.
Addressing such topics as the psychology of virtue and the explanation of action, Reasons without Rationalism is essential reading for philosophers interested in ethics, rationality, or the philosophy of mind.

Table of Contents:

Preface ix
Introduction 1

1. "Squeezing the Good into the Right through the Tubes of Imperfection" 7
2. The Relevance of Action Theory 14

PART ONE: Explaining Action 21
1. A Puzzle about Intention 23
2. The Belief-Desire Model 28
3. Acting for Reasons 39
4. Solving the Puzzle 48
5. A Causal Theory of Action? 56
6. Against the Guise of the Good 59

PART TWO: Why Virtue Matters to the Study of Practical Reason 68
1. Character and Practical Thought 70
2. An Argument for the Virtue Theory 79
3. Practical Reason and the Guise of the Good 86
4. Motivation and Desire 99
5. Self-Knowledge as the Aim of Action 107

Conclusion 116
Bibliography 121
Index 129