Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 1-7

3. Conventionalism and Moral Motives

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 9-83

4. Motives for Unconditional Cooperation

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 85-123

5. Motives for Conditional Cooperation: Reciprocity, Trust and Fairness

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 125-158

6. Virtuous Motives: Restraint and Spontaneity

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 159-176

7. Evolution of the Cooperative Virtues: An Indirect Justification

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 177-215

8. The Rationality of Plans: Requirements of Dynamic Choice

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 217-247

9. The Rationality of Strategic Intentions: A Justification of the Cooperative Virtues

   • Bruno Verbeek

   Pages 249-271

10. Back Matter

    Pages 273-288

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Many academic authors incur debts in the production of their work, many of which are intellectual. I am no exception. One of my intellectual debts is to three remarkable books, which formed the starting point for my thinking about norms. The first of these books is well known among philosophers: David Lewis' Convention. In vintage Lewisian prose, the book gives a lucid and convincing conventionalist analysis of semantic norms. The second 1985 dissertation Wederkerige book is Govert den Hartogh's Verwachtingen (Mutual Expectations). Partly because it was written in Dutch - my native tongue -partly because of the occasionally impenetrable style, it never got the attention it deserves. In that book, Den Hartogh extends Lewis' analysis of semantic norms to moral norms. Den Hartogh introduced the notion of cooperative virtues that is the focus of much of this book. The third book is a book on economics, largely ignored by economists, which only lately has started to receive some recognition among philosophers: Robert Sugden's The Economics of Rights, Co­ operation and Welfare. Sugden's book explains the emergence and stability of norms in terms of social evolution. Though all three books develop a of norms, their arguments and constructions are conventionalist account very different. Lewis and Den Hartogh take the picture of rational man deliberating about his course of action very serious; Sugden rejects this picture as unrealistic and unnecessary.

• Deliberation
• Rational Choice
• agents
• decision theory
• game theory
• morality
• philosophy

• The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

  Bruno Verbeek

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