Love, Reasons, and Desire

Nicholas Drake*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

This essay defends subjectivism about reasons of love. These are the normative reasons we have to treat those we love especially well, such as the reasons we have to treat our close friends or life partners better than strangers. Subjectivism about reasons of love is the view that every reason of love a person has is correctly explained by her desires. I formulate a version of subjectivism about reasons of love and defend it against three objections that have been made to this kind of view. Firstly, it has been argued that the phenomenology of our focus when we have reasons of love does not fit with subjectivism about those reasons. Secondly, it has been argued that the phenomenology of our motivations when we have reasons of love does not fit with subjectivism about those reasons. Thirdly, it has been argued that subjectivism about reasons of love has deeply counterintuitive implications about what our reasons of love are. I argue that none of these objections succeeds.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)591-605
JournalEthical Theory and Moral Practice
Volume23
Issue number3-4
Early online date8 May 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2020
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Love, Reasons, and Desire'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this