Abstract

One of the most important notions introduced by Joseph Raz in his analyses of practical rationality and the concept of authority is that of exclusionary reason. Despite having received various kinds of criticism, it has survived and gained a widespread diffusion in legal and political philosophy, epistemology, metaethics. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the evolution of Razian thought about this concept and the many objections its hierarchical conception of rationality has to face. It will be showed that a sound account of practical deliberation, also in the context of authoritative practices, can and should disregard exclusionary reason both from a motivational and from a normative point of view.