Abstract

If you face a difficult choice, it is natural to ask yourself what ought I to do? And if you answer that question to your own satisfaction, we typically expect you to then perform the action that you’ve judged you ought to do. Related lines of thought have led many philosophers to conclude that ethical judgments—such as the judgment I ought to do such-and-such—have a distinctive connection to motivation and the explanation of action. And many have further taken this connection to have important implications for the nature of ethical judgment.