Dr. Gillies’ work “A Problem About Preference” has been published in Philosopher’s Imprint. In perfectly normal predicaments the normative constraints we face can be local and chunky: it is all else equal better to go to the pub than not; but on Sundays, it is all else equal better not go than go. Even so, there are things you ought to do in these predicaments. But suppose what you ought to do is a matter of what possibilities compatible with what you know are best in view of the normative constraints you face. There is no best without a relation of better-than and those better-than relations are not local and not chunky. That raises the question: how do we move from local and chunky constraints to global and full preference relations and therefore from normal predicaments to what we ought to do in them? Maybe we can’t. The article can be read here.
