[Revised entry by R. Jay Wallace and Benjamin Kiesewetter on July 31, 2024.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Practical reason is the general human capacity for resolving, through reflection, the question of what one is to do. Deliberation of this kind is practical in at least two senses. First, it is practical in its subject matter, insofar as it is concerned with action. But it is also practical in its consequences or its issue, insofar as reflection about action itself directly moves people to act. Our capacity for deliberative self-determination raises two sets of philosophical problems. For one thing, there are questions about how deliberation…

Read the full article which is published on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (external link)