Norms, rationality, and relevance under the “guise of the good”

Abstract

In several works, Veronica Rodríguez-Blanco has proposed an approach to the normativity of legal rules and intentional rule-following in the frame of the “guise of the good” model of intentional action. She argues that, on this approach, Raz’s conception of legal authority implies that legal rules cannot be rational guides for intentional actions. I will argue that Rodríguez-Blanco’s proposal does not succeed in addressing the practical relevance of legal rules. However, I shall argue that a weak version of her criticism of Raz still holds. Thus, this discussion provides a suitable framework from which I will propose a reflection on the normativity of legal rules. This reflection aims to show how legal norms can count as rational guides for intentional agents without being irrelevant in practical reasoning.