ABSTRACT
Derek Parfit's sweeping exploration of normativity in his book On What Matters is predominantly a very welcome exercise in philosophical reconciliation. According to subjective theories, our reasons for acting are all provided by, or depend upon, certain facts about what would fulfil or achieve our present desires or aims. Later on, Parfit discusses some variations on the subjectivist theme, including versions of Subjectivism that emphasize the desires and aims we would have after procedurally rational deliberation: deliberation that is fully imaginative, avoids wishful thinking, assesses probabilities correctly, and follows other purely procedural rules of reasoning. Parfit distinguishes between 'substantive' and 'analytical' versions of Subjectivism. To bring out the difference between Subjectivism understood as a first-order normative thesis about what counts in favor of our acting one way or another and Subjectivism understood as a meta-normative thesis about the n.
