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ACTS AND INTENTIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2013

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Abstract

What is the difference between the changes in your body that you yourself cause personally, such as the movements of your legs when you walk, or your lips when you speak, and the ones you do not cause personally, such as the contraction of your heart, or your foot bobbing up and down when your legs are crossed? Since the seventeenth century, most philosophers have said that will or intention makes the difference. I reject this answer and propose an alternative that doesn't just apply to animals capable of having intentions, but to all agents with functionally differentiated parts.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2014 

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References

Notes

1 Davidson, Donald, ‘Agency’, in Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford: OUP, 1980)Google Scholar, 43.

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4 Essays on Actions and Events, 44f.

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