Andrew McAninch
Associate Scholar
2013—2014 Forum on Violence
Andrew McAninch
SAS Postdoctoral Fellow
Philosophy
Rational Agency and Normative Avowal
My research project focuses on the question of what constitutes rational agency, where rational agency is understood to encompass the kinds of capacities that are of interest and concern to moral philosophers—namely, the capacities to act for reasons, to be guided by norms, and to be answerable to rational criticisms of one’s actions or attitudes. Drawing on work within both moral philosophy and the epistemology of self-knowledge, I argue that, although acting for reasons or norms can be explained in terms of a person’s behavioral and motivational dispositions, a person can be answerable to rational criticisms only if she has the ability to avow the reasons or norms that move her, even if those reasons or norms move her without prior reflection or deliberation.