Self-consciousness, objectivity and practical knowledge

In Self-Consciousness and Objectivity (SC&O), Sebastian Rödl develops the idea that judgment is self-conscious and objective: every judgment is the thought of its own objective validity. While Rödl’s book focuses almost exclusively on theoretical judgment, this chapter investigates how the self-consciousness and objectivity of judgment manifest in the practical realm. One hurdle in understanding practical judgment is that philosophers disagree on its nature. Some say that practical judgments are normative judgments about what to do, while others, such as McDowell, say that practical judgment is about what one is actually doing. The first half of this chapter criticizes both views on the ground that neither is able to understand how practical judgment can truly be self-conscious. Instead, it is argued, the self-consciousness and objectivity of practical judgment must be understood as both normative and factual. Practical knowledge constitutes its object – the action that objectively happens – by self-consciously comprehending why that object should exist. The second half of this chapter considers whether Rödl’s distinction between knowledge with and without contrary finds an analog in the practical realm and suggests that we can find such a distinction in the difference between practical self-knowledge of particular acts and practical wisdom concerning the good life.