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 "e;Practical Reason and Norms"e;. 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.