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Philosophy of Action
Edited by Constantine Sandis (University of Hertfordshire)
Assistant editor: István Zárdai (Juntendo University, Tokyo, Keio University)
About this topic
| Summary | The philosophy of action includes topics and issues as diverse as those of action theory, agency, autonomy, criminal liability, joint action, free will, decision theory, practical reason, speech acts, motivation, reasons and reasoning, and intention. So whilst it is a distinct area of enquiry in its own right, many issues in the philosophy of action cannot be addressed independently of philosophy of mind, ethics, metaphysics, legal and political philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophy of language philosophy of science, behavioural science, and cognitive ethology. Conversely, progress in these and other fields often requires a philosophical investigation of the nature of action, intention, volition, free agency, deliberation, and so on. |
| Key works | The philosophical study of action and its motives can be traced back to ancient Greek and Indian philosophy. It is of central importance, for example, to Aristotle & Ostwald 1911, and accounts of action have also played a key role in the work of most of the great philosophers of human nature, including Aquinas, Suarez, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Collingwood, and Wittgenstein. In contemporary philosophy key works have focused on topics as diverse as those of ontology and individuation (Hornsby 1980), mental causation (Heil & Mele 1991), intention (Anscombe 1957), weaknes of will (Charlton 1988), practical reasoning (Audi 1989), reasons and explanation (Dretske 1988), historical action (Dray 1995), free will (Kane 2001), addiction&control (Mele 1996), criminal liability (Shute et al 1993 ), joint and collective actions (Searle 1990), and decision theory (Kaplan 1983). Through a series of highly influential papers, Donald Davidson (Davidson 2001) adressed almost all of the above aspects of philosophy of action within a causalist framework which continues to challenge and inspire. |
| Introductions | Danto 1973 Davis 1979 Moya 1990 O'Connor & Sandis 2010 Stout 2005 |
Show all references
In this area
Subcategories
Free Will (2,114 | 89)Justin A. Capes
The Will* (66)
Theories of Free Will (779 | 46)
Free Will, Misc (95)
Decision Theory (1,026 | 112)Rachael Briggs
Decision-Theoretic Frameworks (166 | 23)
Decision-Theoretic Puzzles (132 | 20)
Game Theory (182 | 27)
Topics in Decision Theory (434 | 17)
Utility (75)
Desire as Belief* (20)
Psychology of Decision* (36)
Action Theory (2,120 | 37)Andrei Buckareff
Action Theory, Miscellaneous (151 | 72)Michael Brent
Action Sentences (10)
Intentional Action* (164)
Perception and Action* (72)
Action Theory, Misc (37)
Intentions (385 | 48)Santiago Amaya
Agency (367 | 153)Michael Brent
Practical Reason (1,780 | 41)Sergio Tenenbaum
Moral Reasoning and Motivation* (726 | 112)
History/traditions: Philosophy of Action
- Experimental Philosophy of Action (375 | 53)
- Hume: Philosophy of Action (232 | 126)
- Berkeley: Philosophy of Action (21)
- Leibniz: Philosophy of Action (91)
- Spinoza: Philosophy of Action (415 | 5)
- Hegel: Philosophy of Action (22)
Also in this area
Trending in Philosophy of Action
- Status Quo Bias, Rationality, and Conservatism about Value.Jacob Nebel - 2015 - Ethics 125 (2):449-476.
- (3 other versions)Freedom and Resentment.Peter Strawson - 1962 - Proceedings of the British Academy 48:187-211.
- The right and the wrong kind of reasons.Jan Gertken & Benjamin Kiesewetter - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (5):e12412.
- Free will as involving determination and inconceivable without it.R. E. Hobart - 1934 - Mind 43 (169):1-27.
- Surveying Freedom: Folk Intuitions about free will and moral responsibility.Eddy Nahmias, Stephen Morris, Thomas Nadelhoffer & Jason Turner - 2005 - Philosophical Psychology 18 (5):561-584.
- The positive side of psychopathy: Emotional detachment in psychopathy and rational decision-making in the ultimatum game.Takahiro Osumi & Hideki Ohira - 2010 - Personality and Individual Differences 49:451–456.
- The Desire‐Belief Account of Intention Explains Everything.Neil Sinhababu - 2012 - Noûs 47 (4):680-696.
- Social Norms, The Invisible Hand, and the Law.Jonny Anomaly & Geoffrey Brennan - 2014 - University of Queensland Law Journal 33 (2).
- (1 other version)Constructivism and the normativity of practical reason.Nicholas Southwood - 2018 - In Karen Jones & François Schroeter (eds.), The Many Moral Rationalisms. New York: Oxford Univerisity Press.
- Probabilistic Opinion Pooling with Imprecise Probabilities.Rush T. Stewart & Ignacio Ojea Quintana - 2018 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 47 (1):17-45.
Jobs in Philosophy of Action
2025-26 Mahindra Humanities Center Postdoctoral Fellowships
Collegiate Assistant Professor
Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Faculty Position in Disability Studies and the Institute for Society and Genetics
Faculty, Philosophy
Assistant Professor, Transgender Studies
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