Abstract
According to constitutivism, the objective authority of practical reason is to be grounded in the constitutive features of agency. In this paper, I offer a brief survey of the basic structure of constitutive argument about objectivity and consider how constitutivism might dispel the worry that it can only ground a conditional kind of authority. I then consider David Enoch’s original shmagency challenge and the response in terms of the inescapability of agency. In particular, I revisit the appeal to inescapability in light of Enoch’s restatement of the challenge in 'Shmagency Revisited'. I argue that the revised challenge still fails but that it helps clarify: first, the distinction between external and internal challenges to constitutivism, and, second, the existence of at least different kinds of inescapability of agency (metaphysical, psychological, and dialectical). I argue that only dialectical inescapability is helpful to show that constitutivism is a viable metanormative theory. I conclude by claiming that an internal challenge to constitutivism is still possible in principle but that the burden of proof has shifted once again to the critics of constitutivism.References
BAGNOLI, C. (2017). Constructivism in Metaethics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/ entries/constructivism-metaethics/
BRATMAN, M. Planning, Time, and Self-Governance. Oxford University Press, 2018.
BRATMAN, M. The Fecundity of Planning Agency. Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, 1, 47–69, 2013.
BUSS, S. The Possibility of Action as the Impossibility of Certain Forms of Self-Alienation. Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, 1, 12–46, 2013.
BUSS, S. (ms). Norms of Rationality and the Superficial Unity of the Mind DENNETT, D. Elbow Room. MIT Press, 1984.
ENOCH, D. Agency, Shmagency: Why Normativity Won’t Come from What Is Constitutive of Action. The Philosophical Review, 115, 169–198, 2006.
ENOCH, D. Shmagency Revisited. In M. Brady (eds) New Waves in Metaethics. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 208–233, 2011.
FERRERO, L. Constitutivism and the Inescapability of Agency. Oxford Studies in Metaethics, 4, 303–333, 2009.
FERRERO, L. Diachronic Structural Rationality. Inquiry, 57(3), 311–336, 2014.
FERRERO, L. Review of P. Katsafanas, Constitutivism and the Foundations of Ethics. Ethics, 125(3), 883–8, 2015.
FERRERO, L. (forthcoming). The Many Faces of Constitutivism. In M. Haase and E. Mayr (eds.). Special Issue on Constitutivism. Philosophical Explorations.
FRANKFURT, H.F. (1971). Freedom of the Will and The Concept of a Person. In The Importance of What We Care About: Philosophical Essays. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
KATSAFANAS, P. Agency and the Foundations of Ethics. Oxford University Press, 2013.
KORSGAARD, C. The Normativity of Instrumental Reason. In G. Cullity & B. Gaut, Ethics and Practical Reason. Clarendon Press, 215–254, 1997.
KORSGAARD, C. Realism and Constructivism in Twentieth-Century Moral Philosophy. Journal of Philosophical Research, 99–122, 2003.
KORSGAARD, C. Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity. Oxford University Press, 2009.
RAILTON, P. On the Hypothetical and Non-Hypothetical in Reasoning about Belief and Action. In G. Cullity & B. Gaut, Ethics and Practical Reason. Clarendon Press, 53–79, 1997.
SASS, L. A. Schizophrenia, self-consciousness, and the modern mind. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 543–565, 1998.
SETIYA, K. Explaining Action. Philosophical Review, 112, 339–393, 2003.
SETIYA, K. Intention, Plans, and Ethical Rationalism. In M. Vargas & G. Yaffe (Eds.), Rational and Social Agency: The Philosophy of Michael Bratman. Oxford University Press, 2014.
SILVERSTEIN, M. Inescapability and Normativity. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, 6(3), 1–26, 2012.
SILVERSTEIN, M. The Shmagency Question. Philosophical Studies, 1–16, 2014.
SMITH, M. A Constitutivist Theory of Reasons: Its Promise and Parts. LEAP, 1, 9–30, 2013.
SMITH, M. The Magic of Constitutivism. American Philosophical Quarterly, 52(2), 187–200, 2015.
STRAWSON, G. The Weather Watchers. In Mental Reality. MIT Press, 1994.
STREET, S. Coming to Terms with Contingency: Humean Constructivism about Practical Reason. In Y. Shemmer & J. Lenman, Constructivism in Practical Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
THOMSON, J. J. Normativity. Open Court Publishing Company, 2008.
TIFFANY, E. Why Be an Agent? Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90(2), 223–233, 2012.
VELLEMAN, J. D. (1996). The Possibility of Practical Reason. Ethics, 106(4), 694–726, 1996.
VELLEMAN, J. D. How We Get Along. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
WALDEN, K. Laws of Nature, Laws of Freedom, and the Social Construction of Normativity. Oxford Studies in Metaethics, 37–79, 2012.
WILLIAMS, B. The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality. In Problems of the Self. Cambridge University Press, 82–100, 1973.
WILLIAMS, B. Ethics and the Fabric of the World. In Making Sense of Humanity. Cambridge University Press, 1995.