Gunnar Björnsson: Instrumental reasons without difference-making

The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with Gunnar Björnsson, Stockholm. "Instrumental reasons without difference-making".

Abstract: The following seems undeniable: If an action does not realize a valuable end to a greater extent than do its alternatives, we lack instrumental reason relative to that end to perform the action rather than some alternative.

Suppose in addition that all reasons are contrastive, as Justin Snedegar has recently argued, such that reasons for an action are always reasons to perform that action rather than some alternative or alternatives. Then it seems to follow that we have instrumental reason for an action relative to an end only if the action promotes that end to a greater extent than do its alternatives.

This conclusion is tempting, but it has troubling normative implications. For example, we would lack instrumental reason for contributing to ends in cases where others would ensure a valuable outcome should we refrain. In this talk, however, I suggest that Snedegar’s contrastivism about reasons fails to account for the reasons guiding the most pervasive kind of instrumental action. In response, I propose an alternative account of reasons that promises to explain both the data motivating contrastivism and the data that seems to undermine it. On this account, we might avoid the troubling normative implications.

All interested are welcome to participate in this seminar.

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