Abstract
Our modern conceptions of practical reason are shaped — I might say are distorted — by the weight of moral skepticism. Even conceptions which intend to give no ground to skepticism have frequently taken form in order to resist it best, or to offer the least possible purchase to it. In this, practical reason falls into line with a pervasive feature of modern intellectual culture, which one could call the primacy of the epistemological: the tendency to think out the question “what something is” in terms of the question “how it is known.”
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Lovejoy, A., 1960. The Great Chain of Being. New York: Harper Torchbook.
MacIntyre, A., 1977. “Epistemological Crises, Grammatic Narrative, and the Philosophy of Science,” The Monist 60:453–72.
1—, 1981. After Virtue. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.
Mill, J. S., 1979. Utilitarianism. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Taylor, C., 1985. “What Is Human Agency?” in Philosophical Papers, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Taylor, C. (1992). Explanation and Practical Reason. In: Ullmann-Margalit, E. (eds) The Scientific Enterprise. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 146. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2688-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2688-5_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5190-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-2688-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive