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lukeprog comments on The Urgent Meta-Ethics of Friendly Artificial Intelligence - Less Wrong
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A 'reason for action' is the standard term in Anglophone philosophy for a source of normativity of any kind. For example, a desire is the source of normativity in a hypothetical imperative. Others have proposed that categorical imperatives exist, and provide reasons for action apart from desires. Some have proposed that divine commands exist, and are sources of normativity apart from desires. Others have proposed that certain objects or states of affairs can ground normativity intrinsically - i.e. that they have intrinsic value apart from being valued by an agent.
A source of normativity (a reason for action) is anything that grounds/justifies an 'ought' or 'should' statement. Why should I look both ways before crossing the street? Presumably, this 'should' is justified by reference to my desires, which could be gravely thwarted if I do not look both ways before crossing the street. If I strongly desired to be run over by cars, the 'should' statement might no longer be justified. Some people might say I should look both ways anyway, because God's command to always look before crossing a street provides me with reason for action to do that even if it doesn't help fulfill my desires. But I don't believe that proposed reason for action exists.
Sorry... what I said above is not quite right. There are norms that are not reasons for action. For example, epistemological norms might be called 'reasons to believe.' 'Reasons for action' are the norms relevant to, for example, prudential normativity and moral normativity.
This is either horribly confusing, or horribly confused. I think that what's going on here is that you (or the sources you're getting this from) have taken a bundle of incompatible moral theories, identified a role that each of them has a part playing, and generalized a term from one of those theories inappropriately.
The same thing can be a reason for action, a reason for inaction, a reason for belief and a reason for disbelief all at once, in different contexts depending on what consequences these things will have. This makes me think that "reason for action" does not carve reality, or morality, at the joints.
I'm sort of surprised by how people are taking the notion of "reason for action". Isn't this a familiar process when making a decision?
For all courses of action you're thinking of taking, identify the features (consequences if you that's you think about things) that count in favor of taking that course of action and those that count against it.
Consider how those considerations weigh against each other. (Do the pros outweigh the cons, by how much, etc.)
Then choose the thing that does best in this weighing process.
It is not a presupposition of the people talking this way that if R is a reason to do A in a context C, then R is a reason to do in all contexts.
The people talking this way also understand that a single R might be both a reason to do A and a reason to believe X at the same time. You could also have R be a reason to believe X and a reason to cause yourself to not believe X. Why do you think these things make the discourse incoherent/non-perspicuous? This seems no more puzzling than the familiar fact that believing a certain thing could be epistemically irrational but prudentially rational to (cause yourself) to believe.