Elisabeth Anscombe in her book, Intention, identifies the key features that characterise intentional action; explaining intentional action along the lines of the philosophical tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas.
a) The later stages of an intentional action “swallow up” the former stages:
Intentional action is comprised of a number of stages of actions. For example, if Y intends to make a cup of coffee, first, Y has to switch on the boiler in order to boil the water. After boiling, Y pours it into the cup of coffee. While making the coffee, anyways, there are so many other things that Y is doing that are irrelevant to his intentional action. For instance, Y could cough, look through his phone, and so on. Similarly, there are many other things
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In performing his action, he may be aided by observation, but he already knows the order of actions and why, which is the essence of practical knowledge. Y does not need a theoretical stance of himself or a verification of movements in his body for him to know that he is performing an intentional action. Following the previous example, Y does not need to observe that he is making coffee to know that he intends to make coffee and is bringing this about. Y switches on the boiler to boil the water and does not ask himself “let me see what my body is up to” , “let me observe what I am doing” and gather from my movements whether I am actually bringing about making coffee. The action, of course, can be aided by observation, Y needs his sight to pour the boiling water without spilling it, for instance. But Y does not use his observation to know that he is making coffee. On the contrary, the more Y needs this theoretical stance towards himself, the more likely that his actions are not intentional, he is not controlling the action and is not guided by the order of reasons. In this occasion, Y is not an agent, rather something is happening to Y. Imagine a painter who intends making a painting. He already has an idea of what the painting will look like on the canvas. The
Actions are viewed as two different processes. One type is actions that are volitions produced from the mind, or soul (Descartes, 1998, p. 62). This type is considered to be the internal operations that are voluntarily controlled. The other
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to help the readers understand the importance of following directions, especially those pertaining to the school and classroom. Students, who are also soldiers, are held to the same expectations, if not higher, than those obtaining a civilian education and training. At the beginning of the training period, a soldier is required to sign a statement acknowledging rules that they will follow. These rules are set in place to ensure that students are learning at their highest capacity and to prevent chaos and disorder. Appropriate action will be taken for those who fail to follow instructions.
Oblique Intention - One obliquely intends something if and only if it is foreseen as a consequence of one 's voluntary action and is not directly intended.
The difference between acting intentionally and acting knowingly is somewhat subtle, but the following example should clear it up a little.
Intention – Intention represent motivational components of a behavior, that is, the degree of conscious effort that a person will exert in order to perform a behavior (Ajzen, 1991, p.201).
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The source giving suggests that During times of crisis the government must make decisive action to protect its people. This is an imposition of liberalism that most minorities or sovereign nations can’t avoid. Decisive actions are ones that require offensive and defensive action, which are crucial yet they often happen with little to no research, or hesitation. The source also suggests that the people should be free from unnecessary government control during times of stability. Nevertheless, this might be the case in most sovereign states, many, even in times of peace, face constant government intervention in aspects of private life. The source gives an important insight into an issue that, throughout history, has been constant and will
To any prospective parent, a school needs to present all the facts about itself, so as the parent may make the choice that is best for their child. Thirty years ago, when I was in school. There was no concern about scores, diversity, etc. You just went to your local elementary, middle and high school. Today parents are much more informed and curious about where their child is going to go. To some parents, it is quite important to have their children attend a culturally diverse school. “There is a richness that comes from students working side by side with others who are not of the same cookie-cutter mold,” notes Jean Snell. (Great
Determinism is the doctrine, that every event, as well as human actions is determined by causes that are independent to the will. From determinism, two opposing views were identified. The incompatibilists view that determinism implies no free will, or the compatibilists view that determinism still allows for free will. The incompatibilist philosophical thinkers have taken determinism as use of a scapegoat, identifying determinism to infer that human beings are unable to have any free will, thus no moral responsibility for taken actions. Whilst the compatibilist philosophical thinkers have taken a softer view of determinism, holding the view that an agents actions are pre-determined, although the agent is still to be held morally responsible for the agent’s voluntary actions. Determinism, as argued for the compatibilists, allows for an agent to hold free will and share equal responsibility for chosen actions.
Midterm Essay 2 The debate between functionalists and intentionalists is based on the question of whether or not Adolf Hitler and the Nazis had an organized plan to exterminate the Jews from the beginning, or if their plan evolved to include the murder of the Jews as a function of circumstance. While it is important to understand both possibilities and the reasons behind them, the debate itself is not very valuable to the study of the Holocaust because it is impossible to derive an unequivocal answer to the argument, and taking sides introduces additional bias into what should be a purely historical subject. Arguments for the intentionalist point of view usually begin with Adolf Hitler.
In many instances, individuals neglect to acknowledge the importance of school and a higher education. The individuals who view education as their number one priority see staying in school is important. Why is it important? Is staying in school going to benefit the student/individual? In this essay, I will explain why the literate arts are important and for what they are good. I will also give the opinions of others and what my views are.
Although the control of action in humans is fairly well understood, the processes that underlie action understanding from observation are much more unclear. In general, action understanding refers to the ability to recognize the purpose of an action performed by another person (Hickok 2008). Two prominent theories exist to explain this phenomenon. The first posits that action understanding is an inferential process that integrates contextual clues to determine the goal of a movement. In contrast, the second theory asserts that action understanding arises from the simulation of the observed action in the motor areas of the viewer (Brass et al. 2007). While the inferential process theory enjoyed a period of general acceptance, the
In my opinion, people’s actions are determined by two things: their desires and their judgment. A person may have a strong desire to do something, and that something is an end to this person; however, having this intention does not justify his actions taken to achieve such end – not every action that leads to that end is justifiable, and instead the person need to judge whether his action, or the means to the end, is morally justifiable to take or not. In this case, not only the end itself is justified, the action you are taking is also justified. I believe that the strongest representation of the deepest intentionality is demonstrated when the person refuses to be the slave of his own desire or the most urgent affective state, but takes a step back and analyze whether pursuing his own desire is morally justified or not. If yes, he goes ahead with his own desire; if not, he needs to change his end. Changing his end implies that that he will have to suffer a lot from not addressing his urgent affective state, both physically or mentally. If in that case, the person is still willing to change his end in order to take justifiable actions, deepest level of intentionality is shown – actions are taken according to the justifiability of both means and ends, even if it takes great pain to
Intention is a critical aspect of our existence. Intention is at the core of every action we take, yet we often take it for granted, not paying attention to it, barely aware of the impact it has in our lives. Here's an example; say I would like to go for a walk. I'd never make it through the front door if the intention was not there first. It seems as if the word "Intention" is used over the New Year's holiday more than at any other time of year. Since we are consistently influenced by our intentions, how can this be explained?
The true definition of intention is not very clear, as there are different definitions by different courts. The term ‘intention’ in criminal law has been defined as direct intention whereby a consequence is intended and desired by the defendant, and indirect (oblique) intentionwhereby the defendant can foresee a virtual certainty.Many seriouscrimes require the proof of intention or recklessness on the part of defendant, and in criminal proceedings, the court or jury must decide whether the accused has the intention or the ability to foresee the result of his actions by reference to all circumstances of the case. Thus, ‘intention’ can be classified as particular, general and