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Internalism and Agency

Authors: Stephen L. Darwall;

Internalism and Agency

Abstract

As interest has refocused in recent years on fundamental questions of metaethics, a group of loosely-related ideas collectively referred to as internalism have come in for increasing attention and controversy. A good example would be recent debates about moral realism where question of the relation between ethics (or ethical judgment) and the will has come to loom large.1 Unfortunately, however, the range of positions labelled internalist in ethical writing is bewilderingly large, and only infrequently are important distinctions kept clear.2 Sometimes writers have in mind the view that sincere assent to a moral (or, more generally, an ethical) judgment concerning what one should do is necessarily connected to motivation (actual or dispositional).3 This necessity may be conceptual, or perhaps metaphysical, the thought being that it is not merely a contingent matter that people have motives to do what they think or sincerely say they should. I call internalism of this variety judgment internalism and distinguish it from another set of theses that concern, not what it is to accept an ethical judgment, but what it is for such a judgment to be true.4 According to existence internalism, someone morally (or ethically) ought to do something only if, necessarily, she (the agent) has (actually or dispositionally) motives to do so. Again, this necessity might be conceptual or metaphysical, the thought being that it is not merely a contingent matter that agents have motives to act as they ought. Already, several comments are necessary. It may be wondered, for example, what the point is of adding 'ethical' to 'moral' in these two formulations. Falk is generally read as having originally introduced 'internalism' to refer to a view about the moral 'ought', viz., that, necessarily, an agent morally ought to do something, say A, only if she has a motive to A.5 Falk did not distinguish between this claim and the thesis that, necessarily, an agent morally ought to A only if there exists reason or justification for her to do so. Indeed, the view he had in mind was that a moral 'ought' claim is true only if its grounds are themselves reasons to act, both justificationally and (at least potentially) motivationally.6 These claims came to the same thing

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
61
Average
Top 10%
Average
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