Against Raz' Notion of Second Order Reasons

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Ethics, grade: A, University of Helsinki (Department of Social and Moral Philosophy), course: Seminar on Normativity, language: English, abstract: The essay is a critique of Joseph Raz' concept of second order reasons, especially exclusionary reasons, as presented in chapter one of his 1975 book 'Practical Reason and Norms'. It is argued that exclusionary reasons as defined by Raz have strange consequences that disqualify them from serious consideration. A counterproposal lays out how decision problems can be more plausibly interpreted as conflicts of first order reasons. His examples are reinterpreted in light of the counterproposal.