Mind and Reality

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A course at the University of Warwick.

Lecture 11

Date given: Tuesday 17th November 2020

This is the youtube page for Lecture 11. In case you prefer, I have also put a page with the videos on microsoft stream here. Or, if you prefer, you can see the slides with no audio or video here.

Recap: Action

What is the mark that distinguishes actions? According to the view introduced in the last lecture, the Standard Story, it is intention.

Frankfurt’s Argument from Spiders

1. There is a contrast between actions and mere happenings in the lives of spiders. 2. The contrast in the lives of humans is the same. 3. Spiders do not have intentions, nor do they deliberate about what to do. Therefore (from 1 & 3): 4. The contrast in the case of spiders cannot be explicated by appeal to intention. Therefore (from 2 & 4): 5. The contrast in the case of humans cannot be explicated by appeal to intention.

Thanks to Cesar Augusto Ramirez Vallejo Traphitho (Armenia, Colombia) for the spider videos.

Reading (optional): Frankfurt, Harry G. ‘The Problem of Action’. American Philosophical Quarterly 15, no. 2 (1978): 157–62.

Interim Conclusion on Spiders

Frankfurt offers an objection to the Standard Story and proposes an alternative: action is ‘behaviour whose course is under the guidance of an agent’

Reading (optional): Frankfurt, Harry G. ‘The Problem of Action’. American Philosophical Quarterly 15, no. 2 (1978): 157–62.

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