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Toward a Reasons-First View of Normative Background Conditions

Garcia, Andrés Gabriel LU and Green Werkmäster, Jakob LU (2020) In Philosophia 48(3). p.981-992
Abstract
Background conditions are thought to explain how objects can have value in virtue of certain features and how reasons can consist in certain facts. The following paper provides an account of what background conditions are and what effect they have on normative features. It defends the idea that if values depend on reasons, then there is nothing really surprising or mysterious about the presence of background conditions in normative explanations. Background conditions turn out to be a natural and predictable result of normative hierarchies that treat reasons as metaphysically fundamental relative to other normative features. The account is also shown to have advantages over competing accounts in that it is able to capture the functional... (More)
Background conditions are thought to explain how objects can have value in virtue of certain features and how reasons can consist in certain facts. The following paper provides an account of what background conditions are and what effect they have on normative features. It defends the idea that if values depend on reasons, then there is nothing really surprising or mysterious about the presence of background conditions in normative explanations. Background conditions turn out to be a natural and predictable result of normative hierarchies that treat reasons as metaphysically fundamental relative to other normative features. The account is also shown to have advantages over competing accounts in that it is able to capture the functional criteria that characterize background conditions while remaining theoretically parsimonious. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Philosophia
volume
48
issue
3
pages
12 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85075912970
ISSN
0048-3893
DOI
10.1007/s11406-019-00133-0
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5b965664-9999-4ad9-81ab-03e6c603fffc
date added to LUP
2020-01-07 00:30:41
date last changed
2022-04-18 19:54:32
@article{5b965664-9999-4ad9-81ab-03e6c603fffc,
  abstract     = {{Background conditions are thought to explain how objects can have value in virtue of certain features and how reasons can consist in certain facts. The following paper provides an account of what background conditions are and what effect they have on normative features. It defends the idea that if values depend on reasons, then there is nothing really surprising or mysterious about the presence of background conditions in normative explanations. Background conditions turn out to be a natural and predictable result of normative hierarchies that treat reasons as metaphysically fundamental relative to other normative features. The account is also shown to have advantages over competing accounts in that it is able to capture the functional criteria that characterize background conditions while remaining theoretically parsimonious.}},
  author       = {{Garcia, Andrés Gabriel and Green Werkmäster, Jakob}},
  issn         = {{0048-3893}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{981--992}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Philosophia}},
  title        = {{Toward a Reasons-First View of Normative Background Conditions}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00133-0}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11406-019-00133-0}},
  volume       = {{48}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}