Slaves of the Passions

by Mark Schroeder

Overview

Long claimed to be the dominant conception of practical reason, the Humean theory that reasons for action are instrumental, or explained by desires, is the basis for a range of worries about the objective prescriptivity of morality. As a result, it has come under intense attack in recent decades. A wide variety of arguments have been advanced which purport to show that it is false, or surprisingly, even that it is incoherent. Slaves of the Passions aims to set the record straight, by advancing a version of the Humean theory of reasons which withstands this sophisticated array of objections.

Mark Schroeder defends a radical new view which, if correct, means that the commitments of the Humean theory have been widely misunderstood. Along the way, he raises and addresses questions about the fundamental structure of reasons, the nature of normative explanations, the aims of and challenges facing reductive views in metaethics, the weight of reasons, the nature of desire, moral epistemology, and most importantly, the relationship between agent-relational and agent-neutral reasons for action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199575725
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Mark Schroeder is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Reasons and the Humean Theory
Chapter 2 Background Conditions
Chapter 3 Incoherence and Chauvinism
Chapter 4 Reduction of the Normative
Chapter 5 Too Many Reasons
Chapter 6 Too Few Reasons
Chapter 7 Weighting for Reasons
Chapter 8 Desire
Chapter 9 Motivation, Knowledge, and Virtue
Chapter 10 Instrumentalism
Chapter 11 Why Be Humean?

Editorial Reviews

"Mark Schroeder's Slaves of the Passions offers the best, most complete book-length defense available of a Humean conception of normative reasons for action. Part of what makes this book so needed, valuable, and worth celebrating is that it has had so few serious contenders for that title. But the book's virtues are not merely that it fills an exceedingly large gap in the literature. It is also wide-ranging, innovative, systematic, and rigorous.... The book is wide-ranging and complex."—David Sobel, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

From the Publisher