Projects, Relationships, and Reasons
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Description
The relation between values and reasons has been the subject of much discussion in recent moral philosophy, but few people have explored the topic with as much insight and sensitivity as Joseph Raz. In this essay, I will discuss one aspect of what Raz calls ‘the value–reason nexus’: namely, the relation between valuing certain kinds of things and the recognition of reasons for action. Elsewhere I have argued that to value one’s relationship to another person non-instrumentally just is, in part, to be disposed to treat that person’s needs, interests, and desires as providing one with reasons for action, reasons that one would not have had in the absence of the relationship. This is part of what valuing a relationship non- instrumentally involves. In this essay, I want to extend the argument from interpersonal relationships to personal projects. I will argue that, just as valuing one’s relationships non-instrumentally involves seeing oneself as having what I will call relationship-dependent reasons, so too valuing one’s projects non-instrumentally involves seeing oneself as having project-dependent reasons. I take this argument to support Raz’s claim that a focus on the ‘value–reason nexus’ not only does not support a maximizing conception either of ethics or of practical reason, but in fact has significant anti maximizing implications. I also agree with Raz when he holds, in effect, that both relationship-dependent and project-dependent reasons embody forms of legitimate partiality, but that neither is incompatible with any reasonable understanding of the universality of ethics or value. However, there is also one important asymmetry between relationship-dependent reasons and project-dependent reasons, and I will argue that Raz’s formulations are not helpful in explaining this asymmetry.
Source Publication
Reason and Value: Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz
Source Editors/Authors
R. Jay Wallace, Philip Pettit, Samuel Scheffler, Michael Smith
Publication Date
2004
Recommended Citation
Scheffler, Samuel, "Projects, Relationships, and Reasons" (2004). Faculty Chapters. 1782.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1782
