Reasons for action can do many things. They can give rise to further reasons, combine to provide stronger support, and favour one option over another. Each of these phenomena has received considerable attention in the literature, but largely in isolation. I argue that they are systematically interconnected and develop a unified account of all three.

Dr Thomas Schmidt is a professor of philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He has research interests in metaethics and in normative ethics. His current work focuses on how reasons, practical oughts, and moral requirements are related to one another, and on how to explain supererogation.