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Does the normative question about rationality rest on a mistake?

Yair Levy

pp. 2021-2038

Abstract

Rationality requires that our mental attitudes exhibit specific patterns of coherence. Do we have reason to comply? ’Prichardian Quietists’ regard this question as fundamentally confused: the only reasons to comply with rational requirements are the ones given by the requirements themselves. In this paper, I argue that PQ fails. I proceed by granting that Prichard’s own position, from which PQ draws inspiration, is defensible, while identifying three serious problems with the parallel position about rationality. First, as I argue, PQ is not plausibly combined with either the narrow-scope or the wide-scope formulations of rational requirements. Second, PQ implies that the reasons to comply with rational requirements are reasons of the wrong kind. And finally, PQ lacks a crucial component of its explanation, viz. a plausible theory of what constitutes being rationally required to V.

Publication details

Published in:

Piccinini Gualtiero (2018) Neuroscience and its philosophy. Synthese 195 (5).

Pages: 2021-2038

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-017-1314-2

Full citation:

Levy Yair (2018) „Does the normative question about rationality rest on a mistake?“. Synthese 195 (5), 2021–2038.