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

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