Foundation Of Principle Of Instrumental Reason

One of the questions to which practical reason has to give an answer is that what reasons for action are.Some of the moral philosophers claim that reasons for action should be the justifying ones.This kind of reasons explains whether or not an action is right,thus they are normative to all rational agents.While other moral philosophers believe that reasons for action should be explanatory.These reasons are motivations of our actions,which could also be called motivational reasons.Humeans hold that reasons for action must be able to motivate action.Therefore,they deny the existence of justifying reasons and conclude that the only principle of practical reason is the one of instrumental reason.Although Kantians agree with Humeans that reasons for actions must be able to motivate us to act,they refuse to accept the principle of instrumental reason as a normative one which could stands alone.They believe there is a different principle beyond the one of instrumental reason and it is possible for us to derive justifying reasons from it.Meanwhile,these justifying reasons could motivate us to act.In this thesis,I attempt to defend the Kantian account of practical reason in two steps.In the first part of the thesis,I'm going to argue against all of the objections given by the Humeans to one of the most important criticisms that the Humean exposition of practical reason is unable to account for the possibility of practical irrationality.As the first move of my own argument,the promising reply implies that the Kantian account of practical reason is on the right track.In the second part of the thesis,I will reconstruct the account of practical reason given by some contemporary Kantians and show that most of their ideas are right.But for the Kantians who are trying to establish or,at least,to justify the principle of instrumental reason and categorical imperative,there remains some further difficulties to deal with.I shall go further to show that we could defend this kind of account by making some modifications.