Table Of ContentOUPCORRECTEDPROOF – FINAL,7/5/2018,SPi
The Importance of Being Rational
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The Importance
of Being Rational
Errol Lord
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ToAnne
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Yet the thing is not altogether desperate; for we have some arguments to
guideus...
(Newton,1953,p.24)
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Preface
This book is the culmination of a project that has spanned the last ten years. The
project started when I was an undergraduate at Arizona State. I had the privilege
of attending Doug Portmore’s seminar on reasons and value. It was for that class
thatIfirstwroteabouttheconnectionbetweenreasonsandrationality.Duringthe
same semester I attended Doug’s class, I also attended Stew Cohen’s seminar on
Williamson’s Knowledge and its Limits. Although I did not write about reasons or
rationalityforStew,hisseminarhadaprofoundeffectonmyphilosophicaltrajectory.
IthankbothDougandStewfortheirteaching,theirkindness,andtheirsupport.I
alsothankBachHoandShyamNairfortheirintellectualcompanionshipduringmy
ASUdays.
AfterASU,IenteredthePhDprogramattheUniversityofNebraska-Lincoln.My
plan was to work on normative ethics. This changed about a month into my first
semester. I gave my first talk as a graduate student at the in-house talk series for
graduatestudents.UN-Lhasagreattraditionofinvitingallfirstyearfacultytothese
talks.IwasluckyenoughtohaveDaveSobelandJanDowellatmytalk.Igavethe
paperIhadwrittenforDougthepreviousspring.Ihadactuallywantedtotalkabout
contractualism,butdidn’thaveanythingIwashappyenoughwith.I’mgladIdidn’t
becausethediscussionofmypaperthatdaywasexhilaratingenoughtocauseaserious
obsessionwiththeconnectionbetweenreasonsandrationality.IhavetothankDave
especiallyforpushingmejusthardenoughtoverybadlywanttosolvetheobvious
problems.IwassoworkedupthatIwasmadlywritingnotesonthebackofscrappaper
onmybusridehome.DavewasquitesurprisedwhenIpulledoutthesesamepiecesof
paperthatnightatadepartmentparty.Icontinuedtoworkontheseissuesformuchof
mytimeatUN-L,eventuallywritinganMAthesisonthetopic.Iwashelpedbymany
at UN-L. I owe a very large debt to Mark van Roojen, who was my main advisor.
Without Mark, I would have never been admitted to Princeton. Without that I am
confidentthatthisbookwouldnotexist.IalsothankAlCasullo,JanDowell,Cullen
Gatten, John Gibbons, Reina Hayaki, Cliff Hill, Tim Loughlin, Jennifer McKitrick,
JoeMendola,DaveSobel,SteveSwartzer,andAdamThompson.
After Nebraska I was fortunate enough to come to Princeton. When I began
the PhD program at Princeton I planned to write on the broader topic of whether
reasonsarethefundamentalconstituentsofthenormative.Mythinkingonthattopic
continuallyledmebacktothecentralideasofthisbook.Thisconvincedmetowritea
dissertationdefendingareasonsbasedaccountofrationality.Thatdissertationisthis
book’simmediatepredecessor.
Princeton was an ideal place for me to develop intellectually. I look back on
that time in the way that Tim Riggins looks back on high school. It was an ideal
