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Emotions and the categorical authority of moral reasonIn Carla Bagnoli & Patricia S. Greenspan (eds.), Morality and the emotions, Oxford University Press. 2015.
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4Change in view: sensitivity to facts in prospective rationalityIn Giancarlo Marchetti, Hilary Putnam, Donald Davidson, Sharyn Clough & Ruth Anna Putnam (eds.), La contingenza dei fatti e l'oggettivita dei valori, Mimesis. pp. 137-158. 2013.In this chapter, I offer a constructivist account of practical reasoning as both generative and transformative in response to calls from philosophers as diverse as Iris Murdoch and Gilbert Harman, who have urged the development of a more nuanced picture of reasoning that incorporates revisionary and revelatory changes in viewpoint. Within this context, I describe sensitivity to facts as a form of emotional engagement that is also partially constitutive of facts. I consider both the epistemologic…Read more
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Compassion and Practical Reason: The Perspective of the VulnerableIn Carolyn Price & Justin Caouette (eds.), The Moral Psychology of Compassion, Springer. pp. 77-94. 2018.
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Constrained by reason, transformed by love: Murdoch on the standard of proofIn Gary Browning (ed.), Murdoch on Truth and Love, Springer Verlag. 2018.According to Iris Murdoch, the chief experience in morality is the recognition of others, and this is the experience of loving attention. Love is an independent source of moral authority, distinct from the authority of reason. It is independent because it can be attained through moral experiences that are not certified by reason and cannot be achieved by rational deliberation. This view of love calls into question a cluster of concepts, such as rational agency and principled action, which figure…Read more
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2Vulnerability and the Incompleteness of Practical ReasonIn Christine Strahele (ed.), Vulnerability in Context, Routledge. pp. 13-32. 2016.In this chapter, I examine the concept of vulnerability as a complex constitutive feature of human agency and argue that it is both a constraint on and a resource for practical reasoning. When discussed as an ontological feature of human agency, vulnerability is primarily understood as an aspect of embodiment, which is problematic in different respects. First, in relation to the situatedness of human agency, vulnerability indicates that human agents are subjected to contextual contingencies. Sec…Read more
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“Reason and Ethics”In Maria Cristina Amoretti & Nicla Vassallo (eds.), Reason and Rationality, Ontos Verlag. 2012.
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The Sanctioner's Dilemma : A Kantian Constitutivist ApproachIn Stefano Bertea & Jorge Silva Sampaio (eds.), Metaethical issues in contemporary legal philosophy: a constitutivist approach, Routledge. 2025.
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IntroductionIn Carla Bagnoli & Patricia S. Greenspan (eds.), Morality and the emotions, Oxford University Press. 2015.
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5Morality and the emotions (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2015.Emotions shape our mental and social lives. Their relation to morality is, however, problematic. Since ancient times, philosophers have disagreed about the place of emotions in morality. One the one hand, some hold that emotions are disorderly and unpredictable animal drives, which undermine our autonomy and interfere with our reasoning. For them, emotions represent a persistent source of obstacles to morality, as in the case of self-love. Some virtues, such as prudence, temperance, and fortitud…Read more
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106The exploration of moral lifeIn The exploration of moral life, Oxford University Press. 2011.The most distinctive feature of Murdoch's philosophical project is her attempt to reclaim the exploration of moral life as a legitimate topic of philosophical investigation. In contrast to the predominant focus on action and decision, she argues that “what we require is a renewed sense of the difficulty and complexity of the moral life and the opacity of persons. We need more concepts in terms of which to picture the substance of our being” (AD 293).1 I shall argue that to fully appreciate the n…Read more
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“The Predicament of Temporality: Williams’ challenge to Kant’s conception of practical reasonIn Marcel van Ackeren & Matthieu Queloz (eds.), Bernard Williams on Philosophy and History, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.This chapter argues that Williams’ criticisms of Kant’s account of morality should be viewed in light of their disagreement about the function of reason. This interpretation unearths a fundamental challenge, due to the tension between the temporal features of human agency and the allegedly categorical authority of some normative claims. This is a predicament central to any theory of practical reason. For Kant its root lies in human embodiment, finitude and fragility, and the remedy is the normat…Read more
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36Individual Responsibility under Systemic Corruption: A Coercion-Based ViewMoral Philosophy and Politics 10 (1): 95-117. 2023.Should officeholders be held individually responsible for submitting to systemically corrupt institutional practices? We draw a structural analogy between individual action under coercive threat and individual participation in systemic corruption, and we argue that officeholders who submit to corrupt institutional practices are not excused by the existence of a systemic coercive threat. Even when they have good personal reasons to accept the threat, they remain individually morally assessable an…Read more
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188Morality and the Emotions (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2011.Emotions shape our mental and social lives, but their relation to morality is problematic: are they sources of moral knowledge, or obstacles to morality? Fourteen original articles by leading scholars in moral psychology and philosophy of mind explore the relation between emotions and practical rationality, value, autonomy, and moral identity.
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111Feeling Wronged: The Value and Deontic Power of Moral DistressEthical Theory and Moral Practice 25 (1): 89-106. 2021.This paper argues that moral distress is a distinctive category of reactive attitudes that are taken to be part and parcel of the social dynamics for recognition. While moral distress does not demonstrate evidence of wrongdoing, it does emotionally articulate a demand for normative attention that is addressed to others as moral providers. The argument for this characterization of the deontic power of moral distress builds upon two examples in which the cognitive value of the victim’s emotional e…Read more
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88Defeaters and practical knowledgeSynthese 195 (7): 2855-2875. 2018.This paper situates the problem of defeaters in a larger debate about the source of normative authority. It argues in favour of a constructivist account of defeasibility, which appeals to the justificatory role of normative principles. The argument builds upon the critique of two recent attempts to deal with defeasibility: first, a particularist account, which disposes of moral principles on the ground that reasons are holistic; and second, a proceduralist view, which addresses the problem of de…Read more
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15Complicità e responsabilità reciprocaSocietà Degli Individui 69 10-25. 2020.This article investigates the relation between complicity and moral responsibility.
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19Immanuel KantIn Ludwig Siep, Heikki Ikaheimo & Michael Quante (eds.), Handbuch Anerkennung, Springer. pp. 115-119. 2018.
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58Normative Isolation: The Dynamics of Power and Authority in GaslightingAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 97 (1): 146-171. 2023.Gaslighting is a form of domination which builds upon multiple and mutually reinforcing strategies that induce rational acquiescence. Such abusive strategies progressively insulate the victims and inflict a loss in self-respect, with powerful alienating effects. In arguing for these claims, I reject the views that gaslighting is an epistemic or structural wrong, or a moral wrong of instrumentalization. In contrast, I refocus on personal addresses that use, affect, and distort the very practice o…Read more
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106The objective stance and the boundary problemEuropean Journal of Philosophy 29 (3): 646-663. 2021.European Journal of Philosophy, Volume 29, Issue 3, Page 646-663, September 2021.
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37“The Ekstatic View of the Will: A critical notice of Tamar Schapiro, Feeling Like It: A Theory of Inclination and the Will” (review)Analysis 83 (4). 2023.[...] Schapiro’s new metaphor of ‘being drawn out of oneself’ is suggestive of alienation, even though it is supposed to apply at a different level. As much as in Korsgaard’s account of reflective endorsement, the problem of the agent’s dealing with their inclinations is treated as a solitary internal affair: what is staged is a psychodrama, that is, a drama that plays in the agent’s mind. The (social) world enters solely as backdrop scenery, and social roles and scripts are ultimately up for ch…Read more
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68Time in Action: The Temporal Structure of Rational Agency and Practical Thought (edited book)Routledge. 2022.This book explores the role of time in rational agency and practical reasoning. Agents are finite and often operate under severe time constraints. Action takes time and unfolds in time. While time is an ineliminable constituent of our experience of agency, it is both a theoretical and practical problem to explain whether and how time shapes rational agency and practical thought. The essays in this book are divided in three parts. Part I is devoted to the temporal structure of action and agency, …Read more
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105. Reason and EthicsIn Maria Cristina Amoretti & Nicla Vassallo (eds.), Reason and Rationality, Ontos Verlag. pp. 111-128. 2012.
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1Ethical ConstructivismCambridge University Press. 2022.Ethical constructivism holds that truths about the relation between rationality, morality, and agency are best understood as constructed by correct reasoning, rather than discovered or invented. Unlike other metaphors used in metaethics, construction brings to light the generative and dynamic dimension of practical reason. On the resultant picture, practical reasoning is not only productive but also self-transforming, and socially empowering. The main task of this volume is to illustrate how con…Read more
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1The practical significance of the categorical imperativeOxford Studies in Normative Ethics 11 (1): 177-198. 2021.On a standard interpretation, the aim of the formula of universal law is to provide a decision procedure for determining the deontic status of actions. By contrast, this chapter argues for the practical significance of the CI centering on Kant’s account of the dynamics of incentives. This approach avoids some widespread misconceptions about how the CI operates and false expectations about what it promises and delivers. In particular, it explains how it differs from deductive practical inferences…Read more
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Autonomy, Emotional Vulnerability and the Dynamics of PowerIn Sandrine Berges & Alberto L. Siani (eds.), Women Philosophers on Autonomy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Routledge. pp. 208-225. 2018.Traditionally, philosophers have focused on whether and how emotions threaten autonomy, insofar as they lie outside the sphere of rational agency. That is, they have conceptualized emotional vulnerability as passivity. Second, they have considered how emotions are insensitive to rational judgment, focusing on cases in which emotions are dissonant or recalcitrant. Third, in recognizing the motivational force of emotions, philosophers have tracked their negative impact on rational deliberation. In…Read more
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130Authority as a contingency planPhilosophical Explorations 22 (2): 130-145. 2019.Humean constructivists object to Kantian constructivism that by endorsing the constitutivist strategy, which grounds moral obligations in rational agency, this position discounts the impact of cont...
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Responsabilità, reciprocità e cooperazioneRivista di Filosofia 99 469-475. 2018.This article accounts for the relation among the concepts of mutual accountability, cooperation, and reciprocity.
Carla Bagnoli
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
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University of Modena and Reggio EmiliaProfessor
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Philosophy of Action |
Normative Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Law |