Problems in the Explanation of Action

In Problems of rationality. New York: Oxford University Press (2004)
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Abstract

Takes up a number of problems that arise by attempts to explain actions, and defends the author's causal theory of action. In particular, the author defends the claims that, first, if a person is killed by being shot, the shooting and the killing are one and the same event; secondly, a desire is always involved in the causality and explanation of an action; and thirdly, though reason explanations of actions cannot be backed by strict laws, this does not imply that reasons, conceived of as conjunctions of beliefs and desires, are causally ineffectual.

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10.1093/0198237545.003.0007

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original Davidson, Donald (1987) "Problems in the explanation of action". In Smart, John Jamieson Carswell, Pettit, Philip, Sylvan, Richard, Norman, Jean, Metaphysics and Morality: Essays in Honour of J. J. C. Smart, pp. : Blackwell (1987)
original Davidson, Donald (1987) "Problems in the explanation of action". In Smart, John Jamieson Carswell, Pettit, Philip, Sylvan, Richard, Norman, Jean, Metaphysics and Morality: Essays in Honour of J. J. C. Smart, pp. : Blackwell (1987)

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