Book contents
- Explaining our Actions
- Reviews
- Explaining our Actions
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction and Background Assumptions
- Chapter 2 Habits, Skills, and Know-How
- Chapter 3 Affect-Caused Action
- Chapter 4 Mental Actions
- Chapter 5 Decision-Making and Goals
- Chapter 6 Pleasure and (Affective Forms of) Desire
- Chapter 7 Belief, Judgment, and Knowledge
- Chapter 8 Do Attitudes Come in Degrees?
- Chapter 9 Summary and Conclusions
- References
- Index
Chapter 5 - Decision-Making and Goals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2025
- Explaining our Actions
- Reviews
- Explaining our Actions
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction and Background Assumptions
- Chapter 2 Habits, Skills, and Know-How
- Chapter 3 Affect-Caused Action
- Chapter 4 Mental Actions
- Chapter 5 Decision-Making and Goals
- Chapter 6 Pleasure and (Affective Forms of) Desire
- Chapter 7 Belief, Judgment, and Knowledge
- Chapter 8 Do Attitudes Come in Degrees?
- Chapter 9 Summary and Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
Previous chapters have examined forms of action that the standard belief-desire model ignores. This chapter starts to dig deeper into the standard model itself. It is about how decisions get made (especially decisions that are commonly described as conscious ones), and about how those decisions subsequently give rise to actions. It draws on the scientific literature on prospection and on what is often called “neuroeconomics” to argue that valence (pleasure and displeasure) is the common currency of all decision-making. It also argues that the goals and intentions that result from decision-making are real, and distinct from beliefs and affective forms of desire. The chapter begins by showing that the ordinary notion of desire conflates two very different kinds of mental state, however, and it concludes by discussing how intentions and affective desires interact when they conflict.
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- Explaining our ActionsA Critique of Common-Sense Theorizing, pp. 91 - 113Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025