Can We Explain the Normativity of Obligation Reductively? :

On Raz's Exclusionary Reasons

Abstract

This looks to examine how the relationship between obligation and reasons should be understood, on the assumption that normativity should be understood in terms of reasons.
Though the analysis of obligation in terms of exclusionary reasons given by Joseph Raz fails as a reductive definition of duty in terms of reasons, it provides a significant suggestion. I argue that Raz's analysis can be modified by distinguishing between normativity and the framework of justification; and by doing this we can gain an outline of a non-reductive explanation of the concept of duty.