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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that If acting for a reason only requires that the agent's own motivational set grounds the behavior, universalizability is a moral constraint on action, not a constitutive one (Williams, 'Internal and External Reasons').

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Distinguishing constitutive from constraining universalizability becomes unstable: constraints that govern all rational action may functionally constitute rationality itself.
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    • 2.If moral universalizability doesn't constrain what counts as acting for a reason, moral nihilists and amoralists would still act for reasons, undermining morality's normative force.
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    • 3.Williams's internalism struggles to explain how we can discover moral obligations that challenge our existing motivations—suggesting universalizability may be constitutive after all.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Williams's internalism correctly identifies that reasons for action must connect to an agent's actual motivational psychology to be genuinely action-guiding.
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    • 2.Universalizability as a moral constraint allows agents with different motivational sets to act morally differently, preserving the role of individual psychology.
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    • 3.If universalizability were constitutive of action itself, non-moral agents could not act; but clearly they do, suggesting morality adds constraints post-hoc.
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