Trying to Do Well by Morality

Abstract

This chapter presents an account of trying. Trying involves knowledge of the aim and requires accepting the aim as an aim. In other words, there is a ‘reflexivity requirement’ on trying: roughly, the agent must know what she is doing to count as doing it, but her knowledge need not be full awareness in the moment. Additionally, we should understand trying in a strong sense, trying is not ‘merely’ trying. Trying means taking steps that the agent believes most likely to achieve her goal, which may be complex. The chapter closes with an account of failing to try. Failing to try, like trying, involves a conscious, though not necessarily conscious in the moment, grasp of the relevant aim as a required aim. Thus only those who have a grasp of Morality as an aim can count as failing to try to do well by Morality.