Action Explanation

Chapter 8 argues that explanations of intentional action that cite the agent’s reasons for acting are the kind of causal explanation that are not made true by causally related events. The most important consideration favouring this view is that it saves two strong intuitions: (a) that reason-giving explanations are causal and (b) that the mental states cited in reason-giving explanations do not denote items that stand in causal relations to the actions they explain. This view has important consequences for how we ought to think about the nature of intentional action. Most importantly, it casts doubt on the view that intentional actions are distinguished from non-intentional actions by their causes.