By the Devil’s Own Lights

Citing the basis on which an agent acts explains her acting in a distinctive way: it brings the action within the purview of rational agency. Many have appealed to the guise of the good thesis to secure the distinctiveness of basing explanation, by showing that the agent’s action is rationally intelligible. But the thesis threatens to artificially sanitize rational agency. Some, notably Setiya, deny both the guise of the good and the claim that basing explanation involves rational intelligibility. Here I pursue a middle path, which rejects the guise of the good but retains the rational intelligibility underpinning of basing explanation.