Reasons from Within: Desires and Values

Reasons from Within defends the view that all our reasons for acting derive from our desires, and ultimately from our deepest concerns. There are no objective values in the world that could require our concerns to be other than they are. Reasons are what motivate rational agents in light of their deeper concerns. Rational agents are coherent in their motivations and actions: they avoid self-defeat, defeat of their own deepest concerns. These concerns need no reasons themselves but provide reasons for having many other desires. We need not appeal to objective values in order to explain how we can lead good and meaningful lives. It will appeal to anyone interested in the nature of values and reasons, particularly students of philosophy, psychology, and decision theory.