Research Article
Normative Reasons for Action: The Situationist Approach
Mario Solis*
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 2, June 2026
Pages:
67-73
Received:
3 March 2026
Accepted:
14 March 2026
Published:
21 April 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijp.20261402.11
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Views:
Abstract: To justify one's actions is to provide reasons, specifically, normative reasons that serve as their foundation. This process involves three key elements: facts, beliefs, and desires. However, the relationship between the latter two (often understood as motivating and epistemic reasons) and the former (the facts) remains a matter of ongoing debate. This paper examines one distinctive approach to addressing this interplay: situationism. Distinct from perspectivism, casuistry, or plain contextualism, situationism offers a framework for understanding the proper place of normative reasons. The paper offers a nuanced defense of the reducibility thesis—the claim that the truth of normative propositions cannot be reduced to the truth of non-normative facts about the world. In doing so, it argues that each of the three elements plays an essential role in shaping normative reasons for action. Yet, when isolated or taken "on its own," any one of them can be used to justify morally reprehensible courses of action—whether by individuals or collectives. The situationist perspective, by emphasizing the structure of normative rationality, offers a way to better foresee how and where such distortions occur. Ultimately, this approach may help illuminate the wrongness of certain human endeavors, that is, to counter the potential tyranny of any of the three elements in play.
Abstract: To justify one's actions is to provide reasons, specifically, normative reasons that serve as their foundation. This process involves three key elements: facts, beliefs, and desires. However, the relationship between the latter two (often understood as motivating and epistemic reasons) and the former (the facts) remains a matter of ongoing debate. ...
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Research Article
Zhiyi on “One Thought”: Between Ordinary and Enlightened States
Issue:
Volume 14, Issue 2, June 2026
Pages:
74-78
Received:
10 April 2026
Accepted:
28 April 2026
Published:
11 May 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijp.20261402.12
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: This paper examines how Zhiyi (智顗) articulates the path to enlightenment based on his distinctive account of human ontology, as presented in Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight, arguably the most authoritative text of Tiantai (天台, Tendai in Japanese) philosophy. In so doing, this study brings Zhiyi’s metaphysics and soteriology into closer alignment than has been achieved in previous scholarship. Among the schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Tiantai tradition occupies a particularly important position in the development of Japanese Buddhism. This is largely because it offers one of the most sophisticated philosophical foundations for the doctrine of sudden enlightenment, in contrast to the gradualist approaches that require a prolonged course of practice. This article focuses on several central concepts in Zhiyi’s philosophy, including “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment,” the “three wisdoms,” and the “four teachings,” through which he articulates a comprehensive vision of reality and practice. In brief, his teaching provides a framework for understanding the true nature of human existence. It presents a path by which enlightenment may be realized through a profound cognitive insight into that very nature. Zhiyi thought that human beings exist only in the immediacy of the present rather than as eternal entities, and that they remain subject to various forms of struggle, even after attaining enlightenment. Yet the very fact that we can recognize the nature of this condition provides the foundation for the possibility of attaining Buddhahood.
Abstract: This paper examines how Zhiyi (智顗) articulates the path to enlightenment based on his distinctive account of human ontology, as presented in Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight, arguably the most authoritative text of Tiantai (天台, Tendai in Japanese) philosophy. In so doing, this study brings Zhiyi’s metaphysics and soteriology into closer alignment than...
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