A Companion to the Philosophy of Action

by Editor: Timothy O'Connor (Indiana University, USA ); Editor: Constantine Sandis (Oxford Brookes University, UK )

• ISBN13: 9781444323535
• ISBN10: 1444323539
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2010-03-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

A Companion to the Philosophy of Action offers a comprehensive overview of the issues and problems central to the philosophy of action. The first volume to survey the entire field of philosophy of action (the central issues and processes relating to human actions) Brings together specially commissioned chapters from international experts Discusses a range of ideas and doctrines, including rationality, free will and determinism, virtuous action, criminal responsibility, Attribution Theory, and rational agency in evolutionary perspective Individual chapters also cover prominent historic figures from Plato to Ricoeur Can be approached as a complete narrative, but also serves as a work of reference Offers rich insights into an area of philosophical thought that has attracted thinkers since the time of the ancient Greeks

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Acts and Actions

Action Theory and Ontology

Basic Actions and Individuation

Trying to Act

Bodily Movements

The Causal Theory of Action

Adverbs of Action and Logical Form

Refraining, Omitting, and Negative Acts

Speech Acts

Collective Action

Habitual Actions

Cambridge Actions

Pluralism about Action

Agency and Causation

Volition and the Will

Intention

Desire and Pleasure

Teleological Explanation

Reasons and Causes

Triggering and Structuring Causes

Motivating Reasons

Humeanism about Motivation

Deviant Causal Chains

Action Explanation and the Unconscious

Mental Causation and Epiphenomenalism

The Explanatory Role of Consciousness

What a Difference Emotions Make

Agency, Patiency, and Personhood

Mental Acts

Agent Causation

Bodily Awareness and Bodily Action

Agents' Knowledge

Practical Reasoning

Deliberation and Decision

Motivational Strength

Addiction and Compulsion

Akrasia and Irrationality

Action in Special Contexts

Rationality

Motivational Internalism and Externalism

Free Will and Determinism

Responsibility and Autonomy

Virtuous Action

The Doctrine of Double Effect

Action and Criminal Responsibility

Intention in Law

Scientifi c Challenges to Free Will

Intentional Action in Folk Psychology

Attribution Theory

Rational Agency in Evolutionary Perspective

Animal Agency

Action in Cognitive Ethology

Action in History and Social Science

The Prediction of Action

Prominent Figures

Indian Philosophers

Plato

Aristotle

Stoics, Epicureans, and Aristotelians

Augustine and Aquinas

Duns Scotus

Thomas Hobbes

Descartes

Locke

Berkeley

Thomas Reid

Hume

Kant

Nietzsche

Hegel

Weber

Wittgenstein

Ryle

Sartre

Chisholm

Von Wright

Davidson

Anscombe

Ricoeur

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.