 But now here is the question. We agree that obligations arise from authoritative dictates. And we agree that for a dictate to be authoritative is for it to constitute a certain sort of reason, let us say a protected one. But why, then, would we identify obligations with protected reasons that result from demands, rather than (as Raz does) with protected reasons themselves, whatever their source? If, after all, there were other ways of producing protected reasons other than through the giving of commands, what would be the point of saying ‘oh, but though there is a protected reason to φ, it isn’t really obligatory to φ.’ Surely if there were any point to this remark it would be purely verbal, and of no philosophical / normative interest.