Action and Existence: A Case For Agent Causation

by J. Swindal

Overview

Since the pioneering work of Donald Davidson on action, many philosophers have taken critical stances on his causal account. This book criticizes Davidson's event-causal view of action, and offers instead an agent causal view both to describe what an action is and to set a framework for how actions are explained.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349333820
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Edition description:	1st ed. 2012
Pages:	206
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

JAMES SWINDAL is the Chair of the Philosophy Department at Duquesne University, USA. He is author of Reflection Revisited: Jürgen Habermas's Discursive Theory of Truth and has published on topics in critical theory, neo-pragmatism, ethics, and Catholic philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Action, Thought, Pragmatism Neo-Pragmatism and its Critics Methodology: Reconstructive Dialectics A History of Action Theory Defining Actions The Explanation of Action A Material Explication of Agency Agency and Existence Bibliography Endnotes