A Theory of Assessability for Reasonableness

Speaker: Andrew T. Forcehimes

Venue: Chengjunyuan, Building 4, Room 311

Time: 27th December, 2024 14:00

Abstract:

Reasonableness lies at the heart of normativity. To claim that you are being reasonable is to claim that you have lived up to the standards of reason. To claim that you are being unreasonable is to claim that you have not. Yet not everything is open to assessments of reasonableness. The actions and attitudes of cognitively unsophisticated animals are neither reasonable nor unreasonable. They are areasonable, falling outside the domain of reason. This talk is concerned with locating and explaining this boundary. The view I aim to defend holds that something is assessable for reasonableness if and only if and because it is the functional effect of reasoning.