Department Talk: Ram Neta, “Basing and Conjuring”

Ram Neta, “Basing and Conjuring”

Suppose you have a reason to vote.  Suppose also that it is a reason why you vote.  It doesn’t follow from these two suppositions that it is a reason in light of which you vote.  What is it to do something, or think something, in light of a reason?  Representationalists say that it is to do (or think) it because you represent the reason as a good reason for doing (or thinking) it. Dispositionalists say that it is for your doing or thinking to manifest a disposition that you have to do (or think) it for the specified reason.  I argue that both of these views leave us with mysteries.  To do (or think) something in light of a reason is for the explanatory relation between the reason, on the one hand, and your doing or thinking, on the other, to be grounded in your ostensively representing that very relation as justificatory.