The Aim of Practical Reasoning

What are we trying to figure out when we are trying to figure out what to do? My view is that there must be some substantive answer to this question: practical reasoning must be directed at some substantive object. I argue that this conclusion follows from widely accepted views in the philosophy of action, some of which have been proposed as alternatives to that conclusion. I also argue that the most familiar argument against the conclusion that practical reasoning has an aim completely misses the mark, at least once we recognize the ways in which that aim could be instantiated.