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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2021-2038 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Synthese |
Volume | 195 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 May 2018 |
Keywords
- H. A. Prichard
- Normativity of rationality
- Rational requirements
- Reasons of the wrong kind
- Scope
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Philosophy
- General Social Sciences