Unless grounded in an adequate reason, a decision to go one way rather than another will be something that happened to the agent rather than something the agent did, and hence be unintelligible to the agent herself.
grounded in an adequate reason(as used in metaphysics and philosophy of action)
Based on a solid, sufficient explanation or justification—the kind of reason that actually explains why you made a choice rather than just happening to make it.
unintelligible(as describing what would happen to Baumgarten's theory without this distinction)
Impossible to understand or make sense of; completely unclear or contradictory.
Donald Regan challenges this view. According to Regan, unless grounded in an adequate reason, “a decision to go one way rather than another will be something that happened to the agent rather than something she did” and hence be unintelligible to the agent herself (1997, 144). Suppose the agent has no more reason to choose one alternative over another and the choice, as suggested above, is settled by her wants. On Regan’s view, if the agent’s choice is to be intelligible to her, her wants must b