Caring is Not Grounded in Reasons
"Love enters the picture through reflection on what it is to care about something or someone, which is related to but not identical with desiring something, finding it valuable, or finding it important. And we are led to reflection on what we care about through confronting the most basic questions about how we should live, or what Frankfurt calls ‘authoritative reasoning about what to do.’ Nothing can answer that question for us without appealing to what we can, or do, or should care about. Caring about something is not the same as wanting it, since we may desire many things that we do not really care about at all. We can also be in no doubt about the intrinsic value of something without caring about it or giving it any importance in our lives. When we care about something, we may well find it valuable, but the caring itself is not a response to its value. In this way, caring is not grounded in reasons; but at the same time caring about something is productive of reasons, for caring about something necessarily involves taking its interests as reasons for acting. The reasons we have are dependent on what we care about, rather than the other way around."
~ Richard Moran, from Essay-review of The Reasons of Love by Harry Frankfurt
