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Scanlon’s modal metaphysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Gideon Rosen*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

Abstract

In Being Realistic About Reasons (Oxford University Press, 2014) T. M. Scanlon argues that particular fact about reasons are explained by contingent non-normative facts together with pure normative principles. A question then arises about the modal status of these pure principles. Scanlon maintains that they are necessary in a sense, and suggests that they are ‘metaphysically’ necessary. I argue that the best view for Scanlon to take, given his other commitments, is that these pure normative principles are metaphysically contingent in some cases and necessary only in a weaker sense.

Type
Tim Scanlon's Being Realistic about Reasons; author meets critics
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

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