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THE OBJECTS OF ACTION EXPLANATION
Author(s) -
Sandis Constantine
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ratio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-9329
pISSN - 0034-0006
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9329.2012.00545.x
Subject(s) - action (physics) , epistemology , relation (database) , variety (cybernetics) , sociology , philosophy , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , database , artificial intelligence
This paper distinguishes between various different conceptions of behaviour and action before exploring an accompanying variety of distinct things that ‘action explanation’ may plausibly amount to viz. different objectives of action explanation. I argue that a large majority of philosophers are guilty of conflating many of these, consequently offering inadequate accounts of the relation between actions and our reasons for performing them. The paper ends with the suggestion that we would do well to opt for a pluralistic understanding of action and its explanations.