Wrong-making Reasons

Abstract

At the heart of Derek Parfit’s magisterial book is a defense of Kantian Contractualism and an argument for convergence in moral theory. According to “ the KantianContractualist Formula : Everyone ought to follow the principles whose universal acceptance everyone could rationally will.” Although it uses the concept ought, this is meant to be a principle of moral right and wrong. It does not assume that there is decisive reason not to act wrongly, so that we ought never to do so, all things considered—though Parf t is sympathetic to that claim. Instead, it gives the condition under which an act is morally wrong. The condition is that the act is forbidden by principles whose universal acceptance everyone could rationally will.