Dynamics in Action by Alicia Juarrero

Dynamics in Action by Alicia Juarrero

What is the difference between a wink and a blink? The answer is important not only to philosophers of mind, for significant moral and legal consequences rest on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behavior. However, "action theory"-the branch of philosophy that has traditionally articulated the boundaries between action and non-action, and between voluntary and involuntary behavior-has been unable to account for the difference.

Alicia Juarrero argues that a mistaken, 350-year-old model of cause and explanation-one that takes all causes to be of the push-pull, efficient cause sort, and all explanation to be prooflike-underlies contemporary theories of action. Juarrero then proposes a new framework for conceptualizing causes based on complex adaptive systems. Thinking of causes as dynamical constraints makes bottom-up and top-down causal relations, including those involving intentional causes, suddenly tractable. A different logic for explaining actions-as historical narrative, not inference-follows if one adopts this novel approach to long-standing questions of action and responsibility.

Juarrero, Alicia: - Alicia Juarrero is Professor of Philosophy at Prince George's Community College, Maryland. She is a member of the National Council on the Humanities, the governing board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262600477
ISBN 10	0262600471
Title	Dynamics in Action
Author	Alicia Juarrero
Series	A Bradford Book
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2002-01-25
Number of pages	300
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.