Standards for All-Things-Considered Decision-Making

Abstract

I present a case, the Brown-Play case, which raises a puzzle about how agents should choose all-things-considered. This case stands in for a class of cases in which reasons that are self-interested conflict with reasons that are non-self-interested and altruistic. In thinking through this case, we can gain insight into (i) when we can prescribe resolutions to these conflicts, (ii) when we cannot prescribe resolutions to these conflicts, and (iii) the normative considerations that underlie these prescribed resolutions.