THE DEONTIC PRIMACY OF ACTIONS?

Ethical theories must answer two questions. What are the actions we ought to perform? This is the Extensional Question. Why ought we to perform these actions? This is the Explanatory Question.1 There is a good case to be made that, with the right machinery, for any plausible theory, we can devise a counterpart that delivers the same extensional answer.2 In determining which theory is best, it is a theory's explanatory answer that matters most.3 We can categorize the various answers to the Explanatory Question based on whether they hold that the oughts governing actions are explained by the oughts governing non-actions. Kantians, for example,