Action (philosophy)
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Philosophy of action is chiefly concerned with human action, intending to distinguish between activity and passivity, voluntary, intentional, culpable and involuntary actions, and related questions. Though these issues have been discussed in nearly every era of philosophy, the topic of action began to receive special attention in the 1960's, and is becoming one of the major sub-disciplines in contemporary philosophy. This article is primarily concerned with the more recent developments.
Action in the History of Philosophy
Since action has ties to central human concerns such as responsibility and autonomy, it has been discussed in nearly every philosophical tradition. Furthermore, most metaphysical, epistemological and ethical views carry implications for our understanding of action (and vice-versa). A survey of philosophical discussions of action would therefore amount to a survey of nearly all of philosophy. A brief note must therefore suffice.
Action has been of concern to Western philosophers at least since Aristotle, who wrote about the subject in his Nicomachean Ethics. It is the theme of the Hindu epic Bhagavad Gita, in which the Sanskrit word karma epitomizes personal action. It has nearly always been bound up with Ethics, the study of what actions one ought to perform.
Many branches of Buddhism reject the notion of agency in varying degrees. In these schools of thought there is action, but no agent. Taoism has famously championed "inaction" as an ideal.
Action vs. Mere Behavior
In §621 of the Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein posed a question: "What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?"
The Metaphysics of Action
Say that someone sees a stray dog wander into his yard and wants to scare the dog away. He yells, and scares the dog off. Whatever else is going on, such a story surely involves some amount of causation. But what causes what? Is the person's desire to scare the dog away the cause of his action of scaring the dog away? Is his action of yelling the cause of his action of scaring the dog (or are they just one action, or is one a part of the other)? What about the person himself - was he caused to do what he did? Questions such as these have motivated inquiries into the metaphysics of action.
Causalism vs. Non-causalism
In the case of the man yelling at the dog, one might naturally explain his action of yelling by pointing to certain mental states he had. That is, one might say that he yelled because he had a desire to scare the dog away and a belief that yelling would do the trick. Or one might say that he had an intention to get rid of the dog. Such desires, beliefs and intentions certainly provide some explanation of the action, but there is a question as to whether that is a causal explanation. To illustrate this, consider the following two explanations:
- The bell rang because someone pushed the button.
- The bell rang because it was time to eat.
- This book is worth reading because the descriptions are so vivid.
In 1, it is quite clear that one is explaining the bell's ringing by pointing to the cause of that event (someone pushing some button). In 2, by contrast, one is explaining the bell's ringing by pointing to something which cannot have been its cause (though it might have some connection to the cause). Further, in 3, the explanation appears to have nothing to do with causation.
Given then that not all explanation involves citing causes, what should be said explanations such as the one given above for the man's yelling? G. E. M. Anscombe, in Intention, denied that the explanation was causal. Part of her motivation appears to be that the cause of some action would be what a person would cite if asked, "What produced that action of yours?" (§11). In response to such a question, such a person might answer "a burning irritation," or "the sight of that mangy dog," but he would hardly cite a mental state such as an intention. Such a "non-causalist" view has been upheld since Anscombe by a number of philosophers, including George Wilson.
Donald Davidson, in a series of articles beginning with "Actions, Reasons and Causes," argued for the opposite, "causalist" position. According to his original argument, if we were to say that the man yelled at the dog, desired to get rid of the dog and believed that by yelling he would get rid of the dog, there would remain the further question of whether he yelled at the dog because of his belief and desire. Davidson then asks what more needs to be said in order to have the complete explanation, and finds no better candidate than the claim that the belief and desire caused the action. Davidson's arguments proved influential, and causalism is currently the dominant position.
The Individuation of Actions
Action and Determinism
The Epistemology of Action
In Intention, G. E. M. Anscombe claimed that we have knowledge of our own actions "without observation."
Philosophers concerned with action
- G. E. M. Anscombe
- Michael Bratman
- John Broome
- August Cieszkowski
- Donald Davidson
- Harry Frankfurt
- David Hume
- Aristotle
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Action, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/action/
- Mele, Alfred (ed.): The Philosophy of Action, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997
See also
- social action
External links
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