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RESEARCH PRODUCT

?What ought we do?? and other questions

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Kant formulates the question “What ought I do?” as an agent’s question. This is not the only way in which practical reasoning can be approached. A great deal of contemporary work in ethics and political philosophy addresses different, often narrower, questions. Much of it focuses primarily on recipients rather than agents, and so on entitlements or rights rather than on requirements or duties to act, including most obviously discussions of human rights. I will consider some of the consequences and the advantages of starting from each of these questions, and some of the ways in which each shapes practical reasoning.