The Importance of Being Rational

Errol Lord

An original account of rationality
A clear guide through difficult debates
A broad treatment spanning ethics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action

The Importance of Being Rational

Errol Lord

Description

The Importance of Being Rational systematically defends a novel reasons-based account of rationality. The book's central thesis is that what it is for one to be rational is to correctly respond to the normative reasons one possesses. Errol Lord defends novel views about what it is to possess reasons and what it is to correctly respond to reasons. He shows that these views not only help to support the book's main thesis, they also help to resolve several important problems that are independent of rationality. The account of possession provides novel contributions to debates about what determines what we ought to do, and the account of correctly responding to reasons provides novel contributions to debates about causal theories of reacting for reasons.

After defending views about possession and correctly responding, Lord shows that the account of rationality can solve two difficult problems about rationality. The first is the New Evil Demon problem. The book argues that the account has the resources to show that internal duplicates necessarily have the same rational status. The second problem concerns the deontic significance of rationality. Recently it has been doubted whether we ought to be rational. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the requirements of rationality are the requirements that we ultimately ought to comply with. If this is right, then rationality is of fundamental importance to our deliberative lives.

The Importance of Being Rational

Errol Lord

Part I: Initial Motivations
1. Introduction
2. The Coherent and the Rational
Part II: Possessing Reasons
3. Possession: The Epistemic Condition
4. Possession: The Practical Condition
Part III: Correctly Responding to Reasons
5. Correctly Responding to Reasons
6. Achievements and Intelligibility
Part IV: Two Problems Solved
7. Defeating the Externalist's Demons
8. What you're Rationally Required to Do and What you Ought to Do

The Importance of Being Rational

Errol Lord

Author Information

Errol Lord is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He works in ethical theory, epistemology, the philosophy of action, and aesthetics. He has published papers in Mind, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Oxford Studies in Metaethics, and British Journal of Aesthetics, among other places. He co-edited Weighing Reasons (OUP, 2016) with Barry Maguire.

The Importance of Being Rational

Errol Lord

Reviews and Awards

"Errol Lord's The Importance of Being Rational is a tour de force treatment of the relationship between reasons, rationality, knowledge, and what Lord calls creditworthiness, the kind of achievement where you don't just do what is right, but do it for the right reasons." -- Mark Schroeder, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

"Errol Lord's The Importance of Being Rational is a beautiful presentation of how one might defend a reasons-first approach to rationality. And it has many insights that will be useful to non-reasons-firsters as well. As such, there's a great deal in the details of Lord's arguments that repays careful consideration." -- Karl Schafer, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

"The Importance of Being Rational marks a new moment in debates about the nature of rationality. It is absolutely compulsory reading for epistemologists, ethicists, and meta-ethicists alike." -- Nathan Robert Howard, Ethics

"The Importance of Being Rational is a rich, ambitious, and thought-provoking book." -- Olle Risberg, European Journal of Philosophy

"[Lord's] book is an essential reading in the literature on reasons." -- Julia Staffel, The Philosophical Review

"the book is an admirable philosophical feat that rewards careful study. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the nature, and worth, of rationality." -- Carlos Núñez, The Philosophical Quarterly

"the book offers an informed, original, rich, sophisticated and exceptionally well-illustrated case for the claim that what we are rationally required to do and what we substantially ought to do is really the same thing. To follow Errol Lord on his route to this conclusion is a frequently rewarding experience and one that is well worth undertaking." -- Hallvard Lillehammer, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews