Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Professor Emma Borg gives the first lecture in a series on "Reasons for Action" as part of the 2024 Frege Lectures in theoretical philosophy at the University of Tartu.
Do people generally do what they do on the basis of the reasons they have for acting? The standard philosophical answer - common-sense psychology or folk psychology - says yes. But recently the idea that humans are generally rational, reasons-responsive beings has come under considerable pressure, as a number of empirical findings (often in the fields of social, comparative, and developmental psychology) seem to suggest that, on the contrary, people are often blind to reasons, acting on gut feelings and intuitions, and are subject to various biases and other errors of reasoning. Although these empirical findings are now well-known (reaching beyond the ivory tower into the public consciousness), Emma Borg suggests that the precise problem for common-sense psychology remains unclear. There are (at least) three different arguments that could be made based on the empirical data. In her lectures, Emma Borg explains these three arguments and argues that the proponent of the common-sense view has responses to each of them. She concludes that the case against common-sense psychology can be rejected, and that we should hold on to the notion that action (of a typical adult) involves acting based on reasons.
Emma Borg is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, University of London. Her main research interests are the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and business ethics. Borg is the author of Minimal Semantics (2004) and Pursuing Meaning (2012), as well as two forthcoming books: A Very Short Introduction to Meaning and Acting for Reasons: In Defence of Common-Sense Psychology (all published by Oxford University Press). The latter book is also the basis for her Frege Lectures.
00:00 Intro
03:18 Talk
1:05:13 Q&A
#philosophy #epistemology #psychology #rationality
Professor Emma Borg gives the first lecture in a series on "Reasons for Action" as part of the 2024 Frege Lectures in theoretical philosophy at the University of Tartu.
Do people generally do what they do on the basis of the reasons they have for acting? The standard philosophical answer - common-sense psychology or folk psychology - says yes. But recently the idea that humans are generally rational, reasons-responsive beings has come under considerable pressure, as a number of empirical findings (often in the fields of social, comparative, and developmental psychology) seem to suggest that, on the contrary, people are often blind to reasons, acting on gut feelings and intuitions, and are subject to various biases and other errors of reasoning. Although these empirical findings are now well-known (reaching beyond the ivory tower into the public consciousness), Emma Borg suggests that the precise problem for common-sense psychology remains unclear. There are (at least) three different arguments that could be made based on the empirical data. In her lectures, Emma Borg explains these three arguments and argues that the proponent of the common-sense view has responses to each of them. She concludes that the case against common-sense psychology can be rejected, and that we should hold on to the notion that action (of a typical adult) involves acting based on reasons.
Emma Borg is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, University of London. Her main research interests are the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and business ethics. Borg is the author of Minimal Semantics (2004) and Pursuing Meaning (2012), as well as two forthcoming books: A Very Short Introduction to Meaning and Acting for Reasons: In Defence of Common-Sense Psychology (all published by Oxford University Press). The latter book is also the basis for her Frege Lectures.
00:00 Intro
03:18 Talk
1:05:13 Q&A
#philosophy #epistemology #psychology #rationality
