Abstract

The purpose of Lawrence’s study is "to examine certain problems concerning ‘intention', ‘motive', and related concepts." He begins by stating that "one’s pre-theoretical conception of human motives, plans, purposes, and the like is not that of present states of the individual." Using historical sources and philosophical positions which run counter to his thoughts on human action, Lawrence clearly illustrates that concepts of human action do not have to fit into ill-conceived theories, rather he looks at them phenomenologically, i.e., in the way these concepts reveal themselves in various modes of communication. Much of his discussion centers on the concept of intention which he believes is a kind of action that is not to be thought as a desirous foreknowledge. This book is polemical in parts, but it makes for interesting reading for analysts and phenomenologists.—G. D.