Conclusion

Abstract

This brief chapter first restates the arguments for desire-as-belief, reiterates how it illuminates various questions about motivation, rationality, and what we ought to do, and recapitulates the ways in which the view can avoid objections. It then briefly restates the contrasts between desire-as-belief and some rival views. The chapter next presents some autobiographical claims about which aspects of the view the author finds most and least compelling, and finally notes various topics that stand out as requiring further investigation in relation to desire-as-belief: the nature of reasons, the prospects for objectivism in metaethics, developments in neuroscience, and questions about desire-as-belief and the status of knowledge – as opposed to mere belief – about reasons.