Thank you, that's helpful. I agree that the best decision must be the one most strongly supported by reasons. (Indeed, if 'best decision' doesn't mean 'decision that produces the most value' it's hard to see what else it could mean.) Therefore, if the ought of most reason is the (fundamental? most central?) ought of rationality, then yes…
Thank you, that's helpful. I agree that the best decision must be the one most strongly supported by reasons. (Indeed, if 'best decision' doesn't mean 'decision that produces the most value' it's hard to see what else it could mean.) Therefore, if the ought of most reason is the (fundamental? most central?) ought of rationality, then yes, the best decision must be rationally superior. What I am thinking is that a rationalist may resist by denying that the ought of rationality is the ought of most reason. Instead, they will claim that the most important deontic rational notion is permissibility (in the lax sense you are describing), and you rationally ought F just when F is your only permissible option. On this view rationality doesn't enjoin us to do what is best, but rather only to meet some lower standard; the point of rational guidance is not to lead us to do the best, but only not to do so badly as to fall below the bar of permissibility.
I am not sympathetic to this view. I accept, as I think you do, that the ought of rationality is the all-things-considered ought, and I find it hard to imagine how something could be the best decision yet not be what I, all things considered, ought to do. But unless you think its definitive of the ought of rationality that it is the all-things-considered ought, or something similar, there seems to be space for the view I describe. And I think that would be the most plausible version of a 'rationalist' view of permissibility in your lax sense.
Thank you, that's helpful. I agree that the best decision must be the one most strongly supported by reasons. (Indeed, if 'best decision' doesn't mean 'decision that produces the most value' it's hard to see what else it could mean.) Therefore, if the ought of most reason is the (fundamental? most central?) ought of rationality, then yes, the best decision must be rationally superior. What I am thinking is that a rationalist may resist by denying that the ought of rationality is the ought of most reason. Instead, they will claim that the most important deontic rational notion is permissibility (in the lax sense you are describing), and you rationally ought F just when F is your only permissible option. On this view rationality doesn't enjoin us to do what is best, but rather only to meet some lower standard; the point of rational guidance is not to lead us to do the best, but only not to do so badly as to fall below the bar of permissibility.
I am not sympathetic to this view. I accept, as I think you do, that the ought of rationality is the all-things-considered ought, and I find it hard to imagine how something could be the best decision yet not be what I, all things considered, ought to do. But unless you think its definitive of the ought of rationality that it is the all-things-considered ought, or something similar, there seems to be space for the view I describe. And I think that would be the most plausible version of a 'rationalist' view of permissibility in your lax sense.