ABSTRACT
The idea of pattern-based reasons provides an appealing model for under-
standing the conflicting intuitions about pragmatism. Roughly, act-based
reasons are pragmatic, while pattern-based reasons are principled. However,
this explanation does not fit the Cooperative Conception. According to that
conception, pattern-based reasons exist only in cooperative contexts. But as
I argued in Chapter 2, the anti-pragmatic intuition has most force in cases
where the other agent is obstructive, and so uncooperative. Thus if we wish to
explain the intuitions about pragmatism in terms of pattern-based reasons we need some different account of them. We must ask whether we can disen-
tangle the idea of pattern-based reasons from the Willingness Requirement.
