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Dreaming as an Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1966

Harvey Mullane
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University

Extract

In comments on my “Moral Responsibility for Dreams,” J. F. M. Hunter claims that I fail to see that “‘Dreaming is not an action’ is a grammatical remark, [not an “empirical” one] and as such makes no assertion as to what is or may be the case in our souls, but only about how we may talk about certain psychological goings-on.” (p. 535) Hunter argues that ‘Dreaming is not an action’ is a logical remark in the way that ‘Bachelors are unmarried’ is a logical remark. “It is not something that we notice about dreams, that they happen, as it is not something we notice about bachelors that they have no wives. It is part of the concept of a dream; and no matter what characteristics a phenomenon shares with a dream, such as being experienced while asleep, if it does not happen it is for that reason alone not a dream.” (p. 534)

Type
Discussions/Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1966

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References

1 Dialogue, September 1965, pp. 224-29.

2 Dialogue, March 1966, pp. 531-35.

3 Given the general force of Hunter's remarks ‘could never’ would seem more appropriate than ‘would never'. Is this a slip, a case of hedging?

4 London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959.