Intentions and interpretations
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
MLN
Publication Date
12-1992
Volume
107
Issue
5
First Page
931
Last Page
949
Abstract
Even if everything is up for grabs in philosophy, some things are very difficult to doubt. It is hard to believe, for example, that no one ever acts intentionally. Even the most powerful arguments for the unreality of intentional action could do no more, we believe, than place one in roughly the position in which pre-Aristotelian Greeks found themselves when presented with one of Zeno's arguments that nothing can move from any given point A to any other point B. One argument has it, for example, that in order to move from one point to another, a thing must first move to the half-way point; to do that, it must move half way to that point; and so on forever: so nothing ever moves at all. The argument undoubtedly stopped some auditors in their tracks; but eventually they moved on, most of them fully confident that they were doing precisely that.
DOI
10.2307/2904825
Print ISSN
00267910
E-ISSN
10806598
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 1992 The Johns Hopkins University Press
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Mele, A. R., & Livingston, P. (1992). Intentions and interpretations. MLN. 107(5), 931-949. doi: 10.2307/2904825