Abstract

According to Anscombe, practical knowledge is necessary for intentional action. In this paper, this relationship is reconstructed against the background of another central insight of Anscombe, that actions are dependent on descriptions. Thus Anscombe’s conception of practical knowledge can be understood as an answer to a conceptual problem, namely how one and the same process identified as intentional action can be known in different forms from the first-person perspective of an actor and the third-person observer perspective. This problem is first worked out, then Anscombe’s solution is explained in the context of an interpretation of §§ 45–48 of ›Intention‹. In contrast to Davidson’s position on the problem of action descriptions, the claim of Anscombe’s solution, which is directed against »Cartesian« models of the psychological vocabulary with which actions are explained, is made particularly clear.