Manifest Activity: Thomas Reid's Theory of Action

by Gideon Yaffe

Overview

Manifest Activity presents and critically examines the model of human power, the will, our capacities for purposeful conduct, and the place of our agency in the natural world of one of the most important and traditionally under-appreciated philosophers of the 18th century: Thomas Reid. The book examines Reid's arguments for this view and the view's implications for the nature of character, motivation and the special kind of causation involved in the production of human behavior.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199268559
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/03/2004
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.48(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

University of Southern California

Table of Contents

References to Reid's Works     x
Introduction: Teleology and the Science of Action     1
From Power to Mind: An Argument from the Power to Exert     14
From Power to Mind: An Argument from the Power to Do Otherwise     38
From Change to Power     57
From End-Directedness to Power     76
The Influence of Motives: The Push of Power?     98
The Influence of Motives: The Push of Law?     114
Conclusion: Agent Causation and the Regress of Effort     150
Bibliography     159
Index     163

Editorial Reviews

"Probing, insightful...welcome... Yaffe's book is, in my estimation, excellent: it is deftly and concisely argued, resourceful, and offers a charitable interpretation of Reid's position... Manifest Activity is a book that should delight those interested in Reid's theory of action."—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

From the Publisher