Understanding human agency / Erasmus Mayr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mayr, Erasmus, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agent (Philosophy).

Act (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 314 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How can we be active agents when processes in the world are explicable by the laws of natural science? Erasmus Mayr explores this deep-running tension in our self-understanding and develops a new agent-causal solution to the conflict. He argues that actions explained by aims and reasons are compatible with a scientific view of the universe.

Contents:

Introduction

The problem of human agency

The agenda for finding a solution

'Alien' desires and Frankfurt's problem of identification

Identification, desires, and practical reasoning

Deviant causal chains

How agent-causation works I: the problem, and a brief theory of powers

How agent-causation works II: the irreducibility of powers

How agent-causation works III: from causal powers to agent-causation

Are agent-causal powers reducible to microproperties?

Intentional agency and acting for reasons

Understanding human agency.

Notes:

Revised version of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [297]-309) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-882585-4

0-19-161926-4

OCLC:

775505022