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Dynamics in Action
Intentional Behavior as a Complex System
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Alicia Juarrero argues that a mistaken, 350-year-old model ofcause and explanation--one that takes all causes to be of thepush-pull, efficient cause sort, and all explanation to beprooflike--underlies contemporary theories of action.What is the difference between a wink and a blink? The answer is important not only to philosophers of mind, for significant moral and legal consequences rest on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behavior. However, 'action theory'--the branch of philosophy that has traditionally articulated the boundaries between action and non-action, and between v...
Alicia Juarrero argues that a mistaken, 350-year-old model of
cause and explanation--one that takes all causes to be of the
push-pull, efficient cause sort, and all explanation to be
prooflike--underlies contemporary theories of action.
What is the difference between a wink and a blink? The answer is important not only to philosophers of mind, for significant moral and legal consequences rest on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behavior. However, 'action theory'--the branch of philosophy that has traditionally articulated the boundaries between action and non-action, and between voluntary and involuntary behavior--has been unable to account for the difference.
Alicia Juarrero argues that a mistaken, 350-year-old model of cause and explanation--one that takes all causes to be of the push-pull, efficient cause sort, and all explanation to be prooflike--underlies contemporary theories of action. Juarrero then proposes a new framework for conceptualizing causes based on complex adaptive systems. Thinking of causes as dynamical constraints makes bottom-up and top-down causal relations, including those involving intentional causes, suddenly tractable. A different logic for explaining actions--as historical narrative, not inference--follows if one adopts this novel approach to long-standing questions of action and responsibility.
Review text:
'Juarrero's lively text skillfully applies the kinds of causal analyses required in non-equilibrium, complex systems theory to the problems of action theory.'
-- Stanley N. Salthe, Biological Sciences, Binghamton University
cause and explanation--one that takes all causes to be of the
push-pull, efficient cause sort, and all explanation to be
prooflike--underlies contemporary theories of action.
What is the difference between a wink and a blink? The answer is important not only to philosophers of mind, for significant moral and legal consequences rest on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behavior. However, 'action theory'--the branch of philosophy that has traditionally articulated the boundaries between action and non-action, and between voluntary and involuntary behavior--has been unable to account for the difference.
Alicia Juarrero argues that a mistaken, 350-year-old model of cause and explanation--one that takes all causes to be of the push-pull, efficient cause sort, and all explanation to be prooflike--underlies contemporary theories of action. Juarrero then proposes a new framework for conceptualizing causes based on complex adaptive systems. Thinking of causes as dynamical constraints makes bottom-up and top-down causal relations, including those involving intentional causes, suddenly tractable. A different logic for explaining actions--as historical narrative, not inference--follows if one adopts this novel approach to long-standing questions of action and responsibility.
Review text:
'Juarrero's lively text skillfully applies the kinds of causal analyses required in non-equilibrium, complex systems theory to the problems of action theory.'
-- Stanley N. Salthe, Biological Sciences, Binghamton University