(1) Intentional Action Anscombe’s theory of intentional action is one of different depths and levels. On the surface of the meaning, there are intentional actions with no reasons behind them and ones with reasons. There are also unintentional actions involving unaware actions or involuntary reflexes. I will start with the explanation for intentional acts: Intentional actions are those that give a positive or negative response when the question ‘Why?’ is asked and the question ‘Why?’ has application. It is rational to ask why someone is doing an action, because they are doing it for an intentional reason. Even if an act is being done absent mindedly, like tapping your fingers on a chair while you wait at the doctor’s office, you do it for no reason, but you do not have to be doing it, it is …show more content…
She claims that intentional acts and involuntary acts are known without observation and acts that we are unaware of can only be detected by observation (like digestion or a sleep spasm). Anscombe declares that to observe something there must be a specific kind of sensation that is separately describable. For example, when you have a dream where you fall down one step, you jolt out of your sleep and you can say, “it felt like an elevator was falling and I was falling with it.” He sensation of missing a step and falling is similar to falling in an elevator so Anscombe says, in this way you can know from observation what happened. Intentional and unintentional involuntary actions are known without observation because they cannot be separately described. For example, when you intentionally raise your hand in class you do not know that you raised your hand because you saw it happen, you know because of the specific “raising hand” sensation. The person knows they did something not on the basis of a “separately describable” sensation (Anscombe, p.
It seems that he is emphasizing that we will never “know.” What we do know is based off of our mental ability to see things consciously.
The highest or worst degree of culpability is to act purposely. According to Kaplan, it is a person’s “conscious object to engage in conduct of that nature” (206). To act purposely is to act intentionally, for one to do the thing that one
On the other hand, Anscombe disagrees with Hume, and believes that we can, and do observe causation. Anscombe uses examples of crushing, chewing, pushing, and such to illustrate that we do perceive causation. For example, if person A holds a sheet of paper in their hand, and then begins to crush the sheet of paper, and then later we see the sheet of paper crumbled; Anscombe argues that this is enough evidence to show that we do perceive causation, because we can see the causing of the sheet of paper to crumble. Another example is of person A cutting a sheet of paper; Anscombe would argue that it is evident that we observe the causing of the sheet of paper be divided. In addition, Ansombe add that we can perceive causation by tracing an effect to its cause. For example, of the cutting of a sheet of paper by person A, one can traced the effect (sheet of paper cut in half) to its cause (person A cutting the sheet of paper). Therefore, Anscombe claims that we do perceive causation. Anscombe believes that this evidence is sufficient to prove that we not only perceive “contiguity” and “succession” of events, but the cause of events.
Some behaviours are innate, unlearned and instinctive. From the moment we are born there are instinctive motions that we do. An example of this
This theory assumed that our behaviours and feelings are mainly based on our unconscious thoughts; this also suggests that these behaviours occur because of experiences from our childhood.
It is proposed that one's behaviour is an involuntary act that is directly linked to the
The difference between acting intentionally and acting knowingly is somewhat subtle, but the following example should clear it up a little.
Actions may be a conscious decision, but they are always under an influence of something surrounding the person all the time affects them subconsciously. Roger, we learn, is a very violent angry boy, although at the beginning he was under control. This was no other than society keeping him in line, he threw rocks past the little boy not at. This is very
Affirmative Action Affirmative Action efforts were started in 1964 to end the long history of overlooking qualified people of color and women from higher education. Affirmative Action sets standards for a business or office of admissions, so that a white man does not have the upper-hand over an equally or greater educated minority. The initial way the government tried to justify Affirmative Action was to develop a human resource approach: first identifying the problem, which is racism then establishing the solution (Phillips 67). The intent of Affirmative Action helps cut down discrimination in the work place and in schools, despite the fact that some believe that affirmative action is a
Also, his aim which is to give a complete theory of human nature is way over-ambitious. Yet, this can be argued that cognitive psychology has identified unconscious processes, like our memory (Tulving, 1972), processing information (Bargh &Chartrand, 1999), and social psychology has shown the significance of implicit processing (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). These findings have confirmed unconscious processes in human behaviour.
This author ascribes to the empiricism paradigm. This paradigm is similar to empirical knowing in that it is based on the premise that what is known can be verified through the senses, or
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
From Week 4 lecture, I have learnt about the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Initially, I thought that if a person intend to do something, they will put in their best effort to do it. However, I realized that I was wrong because ‘intention does not always accurately predict behaviour when there is a reflex or conditioned response involved.’(Long-Crowell, 2003) For example, ‘my friend with a phobia may intend to stay calm and collected when faced with their fear, but may end up having a panic attack instead.’(Long-Crowell, 2003) After this lecture, I have learnt that this theory explores the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. A person who have the intention to change is determined by attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. For example, a person who know about the negative effects are more willing to quit smoking.
The TPB (Ajzen, 1985; 1991) was developed following an extension of the socio psychological Theory of Reasoned Action or TRA (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) as a result of the original model’s limitations in dealing with behaviours over which people have incomplete volitional control. According to the theory, both attitude toward behaviour (Act) and subjective norms (SN) are immediate determinants of intention to perform behaviour. The TPB further proposes that intention to perform behaviour is the immediate cause of such behaviour. It represents motivational components, that is, the extent to which a person will exercise conscious effort in carrying out any intended behavioural actions.
Act and potency and their distinction are an important and fundamental theory in philosophy. It helps approach questions in metaphysics concerning substance, essence, and causation. In this essay, I will be using this theory of act and potency to show how the four causes and the theory relate to each other. Thus, the four causes: formal cause, material cause, efficient cause, and final cause are related to each other and can be explained through the theory and concepts of act and potency.