In this collection, Kieran Setiya explores the place of agency in ethics, arguing for a causal theory of intentional action on which it is understood through the knowledge embodied in our intentions, and against the rationalist project of deriving norms of practical reason from the nature of the will.

• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• Part One: Action


• 1. 'Practical Knowledge' (2008)


• 2. 'Practical Knowledge Revisited' (2009)


• 3. 'Sympathy for the Devil' (2010)


• 4. 'Knowledge of Intention' (2011)


• 5. 'Knowing How' (2012)


• 6. 'Anscombe on Practical Knowledge' (unpublished)


• Part Two: Ethics


• 7. 'Is Efficiency a Vice?' (2005)


• 8. 'Cognitivism about Instrumental Reason' (2007)


• 9. 'What is a Reason to Act?' (2014)


• 10. 'Intention, Plans, and Ethical Rationalism' (2014)


• 11. 'Akrasia and the Constitution of Agency' (unpublished)


• 12. 'Hume on Practical Reason' (2004; revised)


• Index

Kieran Setiya is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He works in action theory, ethics, and epistemology, and is the author of Reasons without Rationalism (2007) and Knowing Right From Wrong (OUP 2012). His essays range from the nature of rational agency to the place of love in moral philosophy and the resolution of the midlife crisis.