Screen LibraryNegative actions : events, absences, and the metaphysics of agency /
"Negative actions (intentional omissions, refrainments, etc.) seem to be genuine actions. The standard metaphysical theories of action are event-based: they treat actions as events of a special kind. But it seems that many (and perhaps all) negative actions are, not events, but absences thereof...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Cambridge, United Kingdom : |
| Publication Dates: |
2022. ©2021 |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Edition: | First paperback edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"Negative actions (intentional omissions, refrainments, etc.) seem to be genuine actions. The standard metaphysical theories of action are event-based: they treat actions as events of a special kind. But it seems that many (and perhaps all) negative actions are, not events, but absences thereof. In this book, I provide a comprehensive treatment of this problem and its solution. I trace the appearance that negative actions are mere absences to the widely-assumed view that negative action sentences (sentences which describe an agent as omitting, refraining, etc.) are negative existentials, reporting the non-occurrence of an event of a certain kind. I argue, on the contrary, that such sentences report the occurrence of an event, not the absence of one. Moreover, I show how these events can be identified with ordinary, positive events of the sort we should already have in our ontology. In developing these views, I provide a comprehensive picture of the metaphysics of negative actions, the nature of our thought and talk about them, and their place in a theory of action and agency"-- |
| Carrier Form: | viii, 238 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-235) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9781108813730 1108813739 9781108839792 1108839797 |
| Index Number: | B105 |
| CLC: | B025.5 |
| Call Number: | B025.5/P347 |