Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:06:18.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Action explanation and its presuppositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Lilian O’Brien
Lilian O’Brien*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In debates about rationalizing action explanation causalists assume that the psychological states that explain an intentional action have both causal and rational features. I scrutinize the presuppositions of those who seek and offer rationalizing action explanations. This scrutiny shows, I argue, that where rational features play an explanatory role in these contexts, causal features play only a presuppositional role. But causal features would have to play an explanatory role if rationalizing action explanation were a species of causal explanation. Consequently, it is not a species of causal explanation.

Keywords

Rationalizing action explanationreasons explanationcausalismDavidson’s challenge
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 123 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author will be at the discipline of Practical Philosophy, University of Helsinki from Autumn 2018.

References

Alvarez, M., 2010. Kinds of Reasons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M. (1957)2000. Intention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, A., 2005. ““Are There Genuine Mathematical Explanations of Physical Phenomena?” Mind, 114: 223–238. doi:10.1093/mind/fzi223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, L. R., 2013. Naturalism and The First-person Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belnap, N., and Steel, T.. 1976. The Logic of Questions and Answers. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Brand, M., and Walton, D., eds. 1976. Action Theory: Proceedings of the Winnipeg Conference on Human Action. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromberger, S., 1992. On What We Know We Don’t Know. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Broome, J., 2009. “The Unity of Reasoning.” In Spheres of Reason: New Essays in the Philosophy of Normativity, edited by Robertson, S., 62–92. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancy, J., 2000. Practical Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, D., 1963. “Actions, Reasons and Causes.” Journal of Philosophy, 60: 685–700. doi:10.2307/2023177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D, ed. 2004. “Problems in the Explanation of Action.” In Problems of Rationality, 101–116. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dretske, F., 1989. “Reasons and Causes.” Philosophical Perspectives, 3: 1–15. doi:10.2307/2214261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, J., 2013. “Question-Directed Attitudes.” Philosophical Perspectives, 13: 145–174. doi:10.1111/phpe.12026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginet, C., 1990. On Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamblin, C. I., 1958. “Questions.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 36:3: 159–168. doi:10.1080/00048405885200211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J., 1976. “Events as Property Exemplifications.” In Action Theory: Proceedings of the Winnipeg Conference on Human Action, edited by Brand, M. and Walton, D., 159–177. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J., 1998. “Reasons and the First Person.” In Human Action, Deliberation and Causation, edited by Bransen, J. and Cuypers, S., 67–87. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J, ed. 2010. “Taking the Agent’s Point of View Seriously in Action Explanation.” In Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind and Action, 125–147. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, M., 2013. “What Makes a Scientific Explanation Distinctively Mathematical?” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 64: 485–511. doi:10.1093/bjps/axs012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, B., 2013. “Why Rationalization Is Not a Species of Causal Explanation.” In Reasons and Causes: Causalism and Anti-Causalism in the Philosophy of Action, edited by Laitinen, A., Sandis, C., and D’Oro, G., 97–123. Basingstoke: Palgrave-MacMillan.Google Scholar
Mele, A., 1992. “Recent Work on Intentional Action.” American Philosophical Quarterly, 29 (3): 199–217.Google Scholar
Mele, A., 2000. “Goal-Directed Action: Teleological Explanations, Causal Theories and Deviance.” Philosophical Perspectives, 14: 279–300.Google Scholar
Mele, A., 2003. Motivation and Agency. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mele, A., 2013. “Reasons and Causes: Causalism and Anti-Causalism in the Philosophy of Action.” In Actions, Explanations, and Causes, edited by Laitinen, A., Sandis, C., and D’Oro, G., 160–174. Basingstoke: Palgrave-MacMillan.Google Scholar
Roth, A. S. 1999. “Reasons Explanations Of Actions: Causal, Singular, and Situational.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 59 (4): 839–874. doi:10.2307/2653560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schueler, G. F. 2003. Reasons and Purposes: Human Rationality and The Teleological Explanation Of Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sehon, S., 2005. Teleological Realism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Setiya, K., 2007. Reasons Without Rationalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Skow, B., 2014. “Are There Non-Causal Explanations (Of Particular Events)?” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 65: 445–467. doi:10.1093/bjps/axs047.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M., 1994. The Moral Problem. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Smith, M. 2010. “The Standard Story of Action: An Exchange.” In Causing Human Actions, edited by Aguilar, J., and Buckareff, A., 45–55. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoutland, F., 1998. “Human Action, Deliberation and Causation.” In The Real Reasons, edited by Bransen, J. and Cuypers, S., 43–66. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Stueber, K., 2012. “The Causal Autonomy of Reasons Explanations and How Not to Worry about Causal Deviance.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 20 (10): 1–22.Google Scholar
Wilson, G., 1989. The Intentionality of Human Action. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar