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Full Idea
One way to decide what we have normative reasons to do …is by trying to find a set of desires that is systematically justifiable, which is our best assessment of the desires we would have under conditions of full rationality.
Gist of Idea
Objective reasons to act might be the systematic desires of a fully rational person
Source
Michael Smith (The Moral Problem [1994], 5.9)
Book Ref
Smith,Michael: 'The Moral Problem' [Blackwell 1994], p.175
A Reaction
This is Smith accepting the Humean view that desires are essential for motivation, but trying to find a marriage of desires with reason to produce the more objective aspects of morality. An interesting aspiration…