Knowing and acting: The precautionary and proactionary principles in relation to policy making Page: 32

                                
Holbrook, J. Britt and Adam Briggle. 2013. "Knowing and acting:
The precautionary and proactionary principles in relation to policy making."
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 2 (5) 15-37.
http://wp.me/plBfg0-KQ
We prefer to put the point in more Kantian terms: acting requires autonomy. To say that
acting requires autonomy means that acting requires that we own our actions. We own
our actions by giving ourselves the principle according to which we ought to act. If
anything else determines our actions for us, we are in a condition of heteronomy. This is
why principles cannot be predetermined. Acting on the basis of predetermined principles
is not really acting - that is, acting on the basis of predetermined principles rules out the
possibility of giving ourselves the principles according to which we act (since they are
already given to us). If we know in advance of acting what we ought to do, we are
determined by that knowledge, and therefore we are not autonomous. Autonomy- acting
on our own- requires that we not know ahead of time how we ought to act. Knowledge
kills action in the sense that predetermination of principles kills autonomy.
Contact details: Britt.Holbrook@unt.edu, Adam.Briggle@unt.edu
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Briggle, Adam. 2013. "Let Politics, Not Science Decide the Fate of Fracking," Slate,
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/future-tense/2013/03/12/frackingbansletpoliticsn
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