How to be a Cognitivist about Practical Reason

Cognitivism about practical reason is the view that intentions involve beliefs, and that the rational requirements on intentions can be explained in terms of the rational requirements on the beliefs that figure in intentions. In particular, cognitivists about practical reason have sought to provide cognitive explanations of two basic requirements of practical rationality: a consistency requirement, according to which it is rationally impermissible to have intentions that are jointly inconsistent with one’s beliefs, and a means–end coherence requirement, according to which, to a first approximation, it is rationally impermissible to intend an end while failing to intend what one regards as a necessary means to this end. In order for the cognitivist to explain these requirements, she must arrive at an account of the beliefs that figure in intentions, on the basis of which she can show that any agent who violates these requirements of pratical rationality must have beliefs that violate the requirements of theoretical rationality. Providing such an account, however, turns out to be no easy• task. • Q1 This paper will be divided into three parts. In the first, I will lay out some general constraints that a theory of intentions must satisfy if it is to figure in a cognitivist explanation of the requirements of intention consistency and means–end coherence. In the second part, I will consider the standard cognitivist account of intentions, according to which the intention to φ involves the belief that one will φ because of that very intention. I will show that this account of intention faces a number of serious problems. And in