Action explanation, intensionality, and empathy. From Anscombe to Quine (via Davidson)

Journal title PARADIGMI
Author/s Antonio Rainone
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/1
Language English Pages 12 P. 199-210 File size 205 KB
DOI 10.3280/PARA2017-001014
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The paper discusses the problem of action explanation starting from some well-known theses of G.E.M. Anscombe about the concept of intention and the variety of descriptions of an action. Intentional descriptions of actions are those that embody the intention or reason why an action was performed. This thesis was supported also by Donald Davidson in his theory of action and the explanation of action by redescription. The significance of this thesis is emphasized here because it implies the intensionality of action explanation. And intensionality shows that action explanations which are instances of attribution of propositional attitudes are largely based on the method of empathic understanding, as it had been remarked by WV. Quine.

Keywords: Action, Empathy, Explanation, Intensionality, Intention, Propositional Attitudes.

  1. Abel T. (1948). The Operation called Verstehen. In: Feigl H. and Brodbeck M., eds., Readings in the Philosophy of Science, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts: 677-87.
  2. Anscombe G.E.M. (1957). Intention. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
  3. Anscombe G.E.M. (1979). Under a description. Noûs, 13: 219-233, DOI: 10.2307/221439
  4. Audi R. (1989). Practical Reasoning. London and New York: Routledge.
  5. Bratman M. (1987). Intentions, Plans, and Practical Reason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  6. Davidson D. (1963). Actions, Reasons, and Causes. Repr. in D. Davidson. Essays on Actions and Events. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980: 3-19.
  7. Davidson D. (1978). Intending. Repr. in D. Davidson. Essays on Actions and Events. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980: 83-102.
  8. Davidson D. (1987a). Knowing One’s Own Mind. Repr. in D. Davidson. Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004: 15-38.
  9. Davidson D. (1987b). Problems in the Explanation of Action. Repr. in D. Davidson. Problems of Rationality. Oxford: Clarendon Press 2004: 101-116.
  10. Dray W. (1957). Laws and Explanation in History, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  11. Ducasse, C.J. (1925). Explanation, Mechanism and Teleology. The Journal of Philosophy, 22: 150-155, DOI: 10.2307/2015211
  12. Goldman A.I. (1970). A Theory of Human Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall.
  13. Goldman A.I. (1989). Interpretation Psychologized. Repr. in M. Davies and T. Stone, eds., Folk Psychology. The Theory of Mind, Debate, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1995: 74-99.
  14. Gordon R. (1986). Folk Psychology as Simulation. Rist. In M. Davies and T. Stone, eds., Folk Psychology. The Theory of Mind, Debate, Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1995: 60-73.
  15. Hempel C.G. (1942). The Function of General Laws in History. The Journal of Philosophy, 39: 35-48, DOI: 10.2307/2017635.
  16. Quine W.V. (1960). Word and Object Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013 (new edition).
  17. Quine W.V. (1992). Pursuit of Truth (revised edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  18. Quine W.V. (1995). From Stimulus to Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  19. Schlosser M. (2015). Agency. In: Zalta E.N., ed., The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition): -- https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/agency.
  20. Searle J. (1984). Minds, Brain, and Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  21. Wittgenstein L. (1958). The Blue and Brown Books, ed. by R. Rhees. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  22. Wright G.H. von (1971). Explanation and Understanding. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Antonio Rainone, Action explanation, intensionality, and empathy. From Anscombe to Quine (via Davidson) in "PARADIGMI" 1/2017, pp 199-210, DOI: 10.3280/PARA2017-001014