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Rationality

What is a reason (to do or believe something)? Suppose that someone who kills another person should be punished and that Ann killed somebody. Are there two reasons or just one reason to punish Ann?
Accepted:
January 3, 2006

Comments

Nicholas D. Smith
January 12, 2006 (changed January 12, 2006) Permalink

Seems like one reason to me. Reasons (and reasoning) can be complex, of course, but there would be no reason to punish Ann if she did not do a punishable act, and there would be no reason to punish her if acts such as the one she did were not punishable. So the way to count the (single) reason seems to be this: Ann committed a punishable act (namely murder--not all killing seems to me to be punishable, which is why I changed your wording).

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