A Coherentist Theory of the Authority of Practical Reason

Linda Radzik
Texas A&M University

What makes an 'ought' claim authoritative? What makes a particular norm genuinely reason-giving for an agent? This paper argues that normative authority can best be accounted for in terms of the justification of norms. The main obstacle to such a theory, however, is a regress problem. The worry is that every attempt to offer a justification for an 'ought' claim must appeal to another 'ought' claim, ad infinitum. The paper argues that vicious regress can be avoided in practical reasoning in the same way coherentists avoid the problem in epistemology. Norms are justified by their coherence with other norms.