Intending and Acting: Toward a Naturalized Action Theory (Bradford Books)

Three decades ago, philosophers began to devote considerable attention to a group of problems concerning human action. In the first stage they concentrated on providing an action theory that could be used to resolve some traditional philosophical problems, such as the free-will issue, the mind-body problem, and the conditions for attribution of responsibility. About that time it became clear that philosophical action theory could not, by itself, solve these problems. A second stage developed in which attention shifted to action theory's intrinsic interest. But there progress stopped. In this book, Myles Brand ushers in a third exciting stage, linking the philosophical with the scientific study of action, with psychology and artificial intelligence. He provides a clear and comprehensive summary of the state of human action, discusses the ontological foundations for action theory and the folk psychology of intending, desiring and believing, and makes suggestions for an original theory of naturalized action. A Bradford Book.