Reasons and Intentions

Reasons and Intentions addresses a central issue in contemporary action theory and moral psychology: the relation between the intention to act and the reasons for action. Specially commissioned essays by leading scholars in the field address this question and its implications for our thinking about rationality and moral agency. This book is a valuable "state-of-the-art" resource and will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers working in the field.

There are a number of problems in philosophy that seem to share a similar possible solution: ''Why do promises and contracts bind?'', ''Why ought citizens and judges obey the law?'' and ''Can we realize the gains to be made from cooperation?''. All three problems (as well as some others) share a possible solution in the form of rational internal commitment. Reasons and Intentions is a ''state-of-the-art'' overview of the relevant positions on the possibility of such commitment, including critical ones. The introduction provides a survey of the central problem of the volume, ''how the will can bind itself and still be instrumental in nature'', and the various positions which are further examined in the contributions. Addressing the question of the relation between intentions and action, the considerations which make an intention rational and how this translates into our conception of (moral) agency, this book brings together specially commissioned essays by the leading scholars in the field.