Self-Evaluation and the Ends of Existence

Abstract

Reasons are irreducibly normative, in the sense that there is a distinction between having reasons and acting upon them. This distinction is sometimes characterized in terms of the difference between what we ought to do vs. what we are actually moved to do in fact, though when we characterize it in this way, we must take care not to confuse the ought of irreducible normativity with the ought of moral obligation. The former is a wider notion than the latter, covering all of the practical oughts on which we act in connection with our nonmoral ends as well as our moral ends, and also logical oughts and epistemic oughts . Being thus wider than the latter, the former is also a weaker notion, insofar as it registers a normative force that may fall short of a binding obligation.