Rationality Through Reasoning answers the question of how people are motivated to do what they believe they ought to do, built on a comprehensive account of normativity, rationality and reasoning that differs significantly from much existing philosophical thinking.

• Develops an original account of normativity, rationality and reasoning significantly different from the majority of existing philosophical thought
• Includes an account of theoretical and practical reasoning that explains how reasoning is something we ourselves do, rather than something that happens in us
• Gives an account of what reasons are and argues that the connection between rationality and reasons is much less close than many philosophers have thought
• Contains rigorous new accounts of oughts including owned oughts, agent-relative reasons, the logic of requirements, instrumental rationality, the role of normativity in reasoning, following a rule, the correctness of reasoning, the connections between intentions and beliefs, and much else.
• Offers a new answer to the 'motivation question' of how a normative belief motivates an action.

About the Author

John Broome is White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford, a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. He is the author of amongst others Weighing Goods (1991), Ethics Out of Economics (1999), Weighing Lives (2004), and Climate matters (2012).

Reviews

"Rationality Through Reasoning is clearly written, and it contains many discussions with other experts in this genre of analytic philosophy, such as Gilbert Harman, Niko Kolodny, and Derek Parfit, to whom the book is dedicated." (Ethical Perspectives, 1 March 2014)

Book Information
ISBN 9781405117104
Author John Broome
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 553g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 161mm * 21mm