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  1. Theism and Secular Modality.Noah Gordon - 2023 - Dissertation, University of Southern California
    I examine issues in the philosophy of religion at the intersection of what possibilities there are and what a God, as classically conceived in the theistic philosophical tradition, would be able to do. The discussion is centered around arguing for an incompatibility between theism and two principles about possibility and ability, and exploring what theists should say about these incompatibilities. -/- I argue that theism entails that certain kinds and amounts of evil are impossible. This puts theism in conflict with (...)
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  2. Attempts.Jonathan D. Payton - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 179 (2):363-382.
    It’s generally assumed that, if an agent x acts by ϕ-ing, then there occurs an event which is x’s ϕ-ing. But what about when an agent tries to do something? Are there such things as attempts? The standard answer is ‘Yes’. But in a series of articles, and now a book, David-Hillel Ruben has argued that the answer is ‘No’: what happens when x tries to ϕ isn’t that an attempt occurs; rather, what happens is simply that a certain subjunctive (...)
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  3. Negative Actions: Events, Absences, and the Metaphysics of Agency.Jonathan D. Payton - 2021 - New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
    Three claims are widely held and individually plausible, but jointly inconsistent: (1) Negative actions (intentional omissions, refrainments, etc.) are genuine actions; (2) All actions are events; (3) Some, and perhaps all, negative actions aren't events, but absences thereof (when I omit to raise my arm, no omission-event occurs; what happens is just that no arm-raising occurs). Drawing on resources from metaphysics and the philosophy of language, I argue that (3) is false. Negative actions are events, just as ordinary actions are. (...)
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  4. Noncognitivism in Metaethics and the Philosophy of Action.Samuel Asarnow - 2020 - Erkenntnis 88 (1):95-115.
    Noncognitivism about normative judgment is the view that normative judgment is a distinctive kind of mental state, identical neither to belief or desire, but desire-like in its functional role and direction of fit. Noncognitivism about intention (also called the “distinctive practical attitude” theory) is the view that intention is a distinctive kind of mental state, identical neither to belief or desire, but desire-like in its functional role and direction of fit. While these theories are alike in several ways, they have (...)
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  5. From Simple to Composite Agency: On Kirk Ludwig’s From Individual to Plural Agency.Olle Blomberg - 2019 - Journal of Social Ontology 5 (1):101-124.
    According to Kirk Ludwig, only primitive actions are actions in a primary and non-derivative sense of the term ‘action’. Ludwig takes this to imply that the notion of collective action is a façon de parler – useful perhaps, but secondary and derivative. I argue that, on the contrary, collective actions are actions in the primary and non-derivative sense. First, this is because some primitive actions are collective actions. Secondly, individual and collective composites of primitive actions are also actions in the (...)
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  6. Reference fiction, and omission.Samuel Murray - 2018 - Synthese 195 (1):235-257.
    In this paper, I argue that sentences that contain ‘omission’ tokens that appear to function as singular terms are meaningful while maintaining the view that omissions are nothing at all or mere absences. I take omissions to be fictional entities and claim that the way in which sentences about fictional characters are true parallels the way in which sentences about omissions are true. I develop a pragmatic account of fictional reference and argue that my fictionalist account of omissions implies a (...)
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  7. One-particularism in the theory of action.David-Hillel Ruben - 2018 - Philosophical Studies 175 (11):2677-2694.
    In this paper, I intend to introduce what I think is a novel proposal in the metaphysics of action: one-particularism. In order to do so, I must first explain two ideas: a concept in the semantics of English that many philosophers of action take to be of great importance in action theory, causative alternation; and the idea of an intrinsic event. By attempting to understand the role that intrinsic events are meant to play in action theory, I then introduce my (...)
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  8. Actions and Events in Plural Discourse.Kirk Ludwig - 2017 - In Marija Jankovic & Kirk Ludwig (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intentionality. New York: Routledge. pp. 476-488.
    This chapter is concerned with plural discourse in the grammatical sense. The goal of the chapter is to urge the value of the event analysis of the matrix of action sentences in thinking about logical form in plural discourse about action. Among the claims advanced are that: -/- 1. The ambiguity between distributive and collective readings of plural action sentences is not lexical ambiguity, either in the noun phrase (NP) or in the verb phrase (VP), but an ambiguity tracing to (...)
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  9. Handlungssätze.Miguel Hoeltje - 2016 - In Markus Rüther & Michael Kühler (eds.), Handbuch Handlungstheorie: Grundlagen, Kontexte, Perspektiven. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.
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  10. The logical form of negative action sentences.Jonathan D. Payton - 2016 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 46 (6):855-876.
    It is typically assumed that actions are events, but there is a growing consensus that negative actions, like omissions and refrainments, are not events, but absences thereof. If so, then we must either deny the obvious, that we can exercise our agency by omitting and refrainment, or give up on event-based theories of agency. I trace the consensus to the assumption that negative action sentences are negative-existentials, and argue that this is false. The best analysis of negative action sentences treats (...)
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  11. The Physical Action Theory of Trying.David-Hillel Ruben - 2015 - Methode 4 (6).
    Metaphysically speaking, just what is trying? There appear to be two options: to place it on the side of the mind or on the side of the world. Volitionists, who think that to try is to engage in a mental act, perhaps identical to willing and perhaps not, take the mind-side option. The second, or world-side option identifies trying to do something with one of the more basic actions by which one tries to do that thing. The trying is then (...)
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  12. On the Dynamic Logic of Agency and Action.Chrysafis Hartonas - 2014 - Studia Logica 102 (3):441-478.
    We present a Hilbert style axiomatization and an equational theory for reasoning about actions and capabilities. We introduce two novel features in the language of propositional dynamic logic, converse as backwards modality and abstract processes specified by preconditions and effects, written as \({\varphi \Rightarrow \psi}\) and first explored in our recent paper (Hartonas, Log J IGPL Oxf Univ Press, 2012), where a Gentzen-style sequent calculus was introduced. The system has two very natural interpretations, one based on the familiar relational semantics (...)
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  13. Processes, Continuants, and Individuals.Helen Steward - 2013 - Mind 122 (487):fzt080.
    The paper considers and opposes the view that processes are best thought of as continuants, to be differentiated from events mainly by way of the fact that the latter, but not the former, are entities with temporal parts. The motivation for the investigation, though, is not so much the defeat of what is, in any case, a rather implausible claim, as the vindication of some of the ideas and intuitions that the claim is made in order to defend — and (...)
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  14. Act Individuation: An Experimental Approach.Joseph Ulatowski - 2012 - Review of Philosophy and Psychology 3 (2):249-262.
    Accounts of act individuation have attempted to capture peoples’ pre-theoretic intuitions. Donald Davidson has argued that a multitude of action descriptions designate only one act, while Alvin Goldman has averred that each action description refers to a distinct act. Following on recent empirical studies, I subject these accounts of act individuation to experimentation. The data indicate that people distinguish between actions differently depending upon the moral valence of the outcomes. Thus, the assumption that a single account of act individuation applies (...)
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  15. Donald Davidson: A Short Introduction.Kathrin Glüer - 2011 - New York, US: Oup Usa.
    In this book, Kathrin Gl¨uer carefully outlines Donald Davidson's principal claims and arguments, and discusses them in some detail, providing a concise, systematic introduction to all the main elements of Davidson's philosophy.
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  16. Adverbs of Action and Logical Form.Kirk Ludwig - 2010 - In Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Action. Blackwell.
    This article discusses the logical form of action sentences with particular attention to the role of adverbial modification, reviewing and extending the event analysis of action sentences.
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  17. Adverbs of Action and Logical Form.Kirk Ludwig - 2010 - In Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Action. Oxford, UK: Wiley‐Blackwell. pp. 40–49.
    This reviews, motivates, and extends the event analysis of action sentences and shows how it explains the compositionally of adverbial modification of action verbs and event verbs more generally. It includes a treatment of intensional adverbs like 'intentionally' and how it can be extended to the collective reading of plural action sentences.
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  18. Explication of Will.Yusuke Kaneko - 2008 - Tetsugaku 59:131-148.
    Although written in Japanese, 意志の解明(Explication of Will) pursues a Davidson-style logical formula of will-stating sentences.
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  19. Kinesis and energeia—and what follows. Outline of a typology of human actions.Carl Erik Kühl - 2008 - Axiomathes 18 (3):303-338.
    This paper presents a typology of human actions, based on Aristotle’s kinesis–energeia dichotomy and on a formal elaboration (with some refinement) of the Vendler–Kenny classificatory schemes for action types (or action verbs). The types introduced are defined throughout by inferential criteria, in terms of what here are referred to as “modal-temporal expressions” (‘MT-terms’). Examples of familiar categories analysed in this way are production and maintenance, but the procedure is meant to offer a basis for defining various other commonsense categories. Among (...)
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  20. Collective intentional behavior from the standpoint of semantics.Kirk Ludwig - 2007 - Noûs 41 (3):355–393.
    This paper offers an analysis of the logical form of plural action sentences that shows that collective actions so ascribed are a matter of all members of a group contributing to bringing some event about. It then uses this as the basis for a reductive account of the content of we-intentions according to which what distinguishes we-intentions from I-intentions is that we-intentions are directed about bringing it about that members of a group act in accordance with a shared plan.
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  21. 'Could have done otherwise', action sentences and anaphora.Helen Steward - 2006 - Analysis 66 (2):95–101.
    This paper argues that there are a number of different things that could be meant by the claim that a given agent 'could have done otherwise', because there are multiple ways of disambiguating the various anaphoric devices which are contained in the phrase. It goes on to suggest that on at least one of these disambiguations, the claim that a Frankfurtian agent could have done otherwise might be defensible, even given the presence of a counterfactual intervener who will ensure that (...)
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  22. Old foundations for the logic of agency and action.Lennart Åqvist - 2002 - Studia Logica 72 (3):313-338.
    The paper presents an infinite hierarchy of sound and complete axiomatic systems for Two-Dimensional Modal Tense Logic with Historical Necessity, Agents and Acts. A main novelty of these logics is their capacity to represent formally (i) basic action-sentences asserting that such and such an act is performed/omitted by an agent, as well as (ii) causative action-sentences asserting that by performing/omitting a certain act, an agent causes that such and such a state-of-affairs is realized (e.g. comes about/ceases/remains/remains absent). We illustrate how (...)
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  23. -Ings and -ers.John Hyman - 2001 - Ratio 14 (4):298–317.
    This paper is about the semantic structure of verbal and deverbal noun phrases. The focus is on noun phrases which describe actions, perceptions, sensations and beliefs. It is commonly thought that actions are movements of parts of the agent’s body which we typically describe in terms of their effects, and that perceptions are slices of sensible experience which we typically describe in terms of their causes. And many philosophers hold that sensations and beliefs are states of the central nervous system (...)
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  24. Actions and events: Some semantical considerations.Maria Alvarez - 1999 - Ratio 12 (3):213–239.
    Since the publication of Davidson’s influential article ‘The Logical Form of Action Sentences’, semantical considerations are widely thought to support the doctrine that actions are events. I shall argue that the semantics of action sentences do not imply that actions are events. This will involve defending a negative claim and a positive claim, as well as a proposal for how to formalize action sentences. The negative claim is that the semantics of action sentences do not require that we think of (...)
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  25. Indexes for action.Joëlle Proust - 1999 - Revue Internationale de Philosophie 1999 (3):321-345.
    This articles examines three ways in which the connection between semantic and pragmatic representations of a single action can be tightened up in order to remedy the puzzle of deviant causation. A first move consists in making the feedback process, i.e. the dynamics of the relationship between both representational components, a central element in the definition of an action. A second step brings in the action-effect principle, emphasizing the teleological relation of each pragmatic representation type with its external effects. A (...)
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  26. Actions, adjuncts, and agency.Paul M. Pietroski - 1998 - Mind 107 (425):73-111.
    The event analysis of action sentences seems to be at odds with plausible (Davidsonian) views about how to count actions. If Booth pulled a certain trigger, and thereby shot Lincoln, there is good reason for identifying Booths' action of pulling the trigger with his action of shooting Lincoln; but given truth conditions of certain sentences involving adjuncts, the event analysis requires that the pulling and the shooting be distinct events. So I propose that event sortals like 'shooting' and 'pulling' are (...)
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  27. Review of On Action, by Carl Ginet.Richard Malpas - 1993 - Philosophical Review 102 (1):134.
  28. The logical form of action sentences and the Anscombe thesis.David Pineda - 1993 - Enrahonar: Quaderns de Filosofía 21:51.
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  29. Before refraining: Concepts for agency. [REVIEW]Nuel Belnap - 1991 - Erkenntnis 34 (2):137 - 169.
    A structure is described that can serve as a foundation for a semantics for a modal agentive construction such as sees to it that Q ([ stit: Q]). The primitives are Tree,,Instant, Agent, choice. Eleven simple postulates governing this structure are set forth and motivated. Tree and encode a picture of branching time consisting of moments gathered into maximal chains called histories. Instant imposes a time-like ordering. Agent consists of agents, and choice assigns to each agent and each moment in (...)
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  30. Stit and the language of agency.Michael Perloff - 1991 - Synthese 86 (3):379 - 408.
    Stit, a sentence form first introduced in Belnap and Perloff (1988), encourages a modal approach to agency. Von Wright, Chisholm, Kenny, and Castañeda have all attempted modal treatments of agency, while Davidson has rejected such treatments. After a brief explanation of the syntax and semantics of stit and a restatement of several of the important claims of the earlier paper, I discuss the virtues of stit against the background of proposals made by these philososphers.
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  31. Divine and Human Action.William P. Alston - 1989 - In Divine nature and human language: essays in philosophical theology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 81-102.
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  32. La Sémantique de L'Action.Jean-luc Petit - 1989 - A.N.R.T. Université de Lille Iii.
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  33. Action sentences.David Widerker - 1988 - Erkenntnis 28 (2):269 - 291.
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  34. Intending and Acting: Toward a Naturalized Action Theory by Myles Brand. [REVIEW]Peter Slezak - 1987 - Journal of Philosophy 84 (1):49-54.
  35. Attribution d'états mentaux et justification de l'action.Renée Bilodeau - 1985 - Dialogue 24 (4):639-653.
    Plusieurs auteurs se sont inspirés des thèses du deuxième Wittgenstein pour proposer une nouvelle approche en sciences sociales qui viserait la justification plutôt que l'explication de l'action. Sur la base d'une étude de trois types d'énoncés formulés grâce au langage de l'action (factuels, normatifs et attributifs d'états mentaux), cet article évalue les difficultés et possibilités d'une telle suggestion.
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  36. Actions. [REVIEW]Peter Cataldo - 1985 - New Scholasticism 59 (2):244-245.
  37. Actions and events: perspectives on the philosophy of Donald Davidson.Ernest LePore & Brian P. McLaughlin (eds.) - 1985 - New York, NY, USA: Blackwell.
  38. Essays on Davidson: actions and events.Bruce Vermazen & Merrill B. Hintikka (eds.) - 1985 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    This collection brings together previously unpublished works by well-known philosophers on the philosophy of action, the metaphysics of causality, and the philosophy of psychology. Nine of the essays directly discuss Donald Davidson's work on these topics, while three others challenge a Davidsonian approach through discussion of independent but related issues. These essays are followed by replies from Davidson, including a previously unpublished essay, "Adverbs of Action.".
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  39. Actions.Carl Ginet - 1984 - Philosophical Review 93 (1):120.
  40. Hornsby, Jennifer actions. [REVIEW]Jane Heal - 1982 - Philosophy 57:133.
  41. The essential grammar of action (and other) sentences.Gilbert Harman - 1981 - Philosophia 10 (3-4):209-215.
  42. La Sémantique de l'action. [REVIEW]A. D. H. - 1980 - Review of Metaphysics 34 (2):398-399.
    The first volume from the work of the Séminaire d’Etudes Phénoméologiques et Herméneutiques as a section of the Centre d’Histoire des Sciences et des Doctrines, this book is one of the latest statements in the continuing dialogue between analytic philosophy and phenomenology. In this instance there is the unique advantage of a very recent and careful statement of the results of the research of European thinkers offering a careful look at contemporary Anglo-Saxon philosophy. The first part of the volume is (...)
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  43. Actions.Jennifer Hornsby - 1980 - Routledge and Kegan Paul.
    This book presents an events-based view of human action somewhat different from that of what is known as "standard story". A thesis about trying-to-do-something is distinguished from various volitionist theses. It is argued then that given a correct conception of action's antecedents, actions will be identified not with bodily movements but with causes of such movements.
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  44. Fodor on Davidson on action sentences.Edward Wierenga - 1980 - Synthese 44 (3):347 - 359.
  45. A Problem in the Logic of Action Sentences.Linda B. Cornett - 1975 - New Scholasticism 49 (4):467-472.
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  46. Adverbials in action sentences.E. J. Borowski - 1974 - Synthese 28 (3-4):483 - 512.
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  47. Causes of actions.Myles Brand - 1970 - Journal of Philosophy 67 (21):932-947.
  48. V—The Same Action.Michael Cohen - 1970 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 70 (1):75-92.
    Michael Cohen; V—The Same Action, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 70, Issue 1, 1 June 1970, Pages 75–92, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/70.
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  49. Essays on Actions and Events: Philosophical Essays Volume 1.Donald Davidson - 1970 - Oxford, GB: Clarendon Press.
  50. The Logic of Decision and Action. [REVIEW]K. Fine - 1970 - Philosophical Quarterly 20 (80):287.
    The four main essays in this volume investigate new sectors of the theory of decision, preference, act-characteristics, and action analysis. Herbert A. Simon applies tools developed in the theory of decision-making to the logic of action, and thereby develops a novel concept of heuristic power. Adapting ideas from utility and decision theory, Nicholas Rescher proposes a logic of preference by which conflicting theories proposed by G. H. von Wright, R. M. Chisholm, and others can be systematized. Donald Davidson discusses difficulties (...)
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