On October 15th 2019, I will give a talk to the Philosophy Department at the University of Glasgow as part of its "Senior Seminar" series. The title is "A Modal Theory of Reasons". Here is the abstract:
Abstract A (normative) reason is a consideration that justifies performing some action or having some attitude. For example, that she promised to meet Nishi there is a reason for Miyuki to decide to go to the cinema, that her favourite film is showing is a reason for Miyuki to want to go to the cinema, and that Nishi is punctual is a reason for Miyuki to believe that he will be there before the film starts. But what is it for some consideration to be a reason? Some claim that there is no informative answer to that question. Others try to answer it by appeal to such notions as explanation, evidence, or reasoning. In this paper, I offer a new answer to the question, one which makes central appeal to a modal notion, specifically, the notion of a nearby possibility. After introducing the proposal, I explain its advantages and address objections to it.
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