Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency

304 Pages·1999·28.57 MB·English

by  Michael E. Bratman

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Faces of Intention
Selected Essays on Intention and Agency
This collection of essays by one of the most prominent and
internationally respected philosophers of action is concerned with
deepening our understanding of intention and agency.
In Bratman's view when we settle on a plan for action we are
committing ourselves to future conduct in ways that help support
important forms of coordination and organization both within the life
of the agent and interpersonally. These essays enrich that account of
commitment involved in intending and explore its implications for
our understanding of temptation and self-control, shared intention
and shared cooperative activity, and moral responsibility. The essays
offer extensive discussions of related views by, among others, Donald
Davidson, Hector-Neri Castaiieda, J. David Velleman, Christine
Korsgaard, Harry Frankfurt, and P. F. Strawson.
This collection will be a valuable resource for a wide range of
philosophers and their students and will also be of interest to social
and developmental psychologists, AI researchers, and game and
decision theorists.
Michael E. Bratman is Howard H. and Jessie T. Watkins University
Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University.

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY
General editor ERNEST SOSA (Brown University)
Advisory editors:
JONATHAN DANCY (University of Reading)
JOHN HALDANE (University of St. Andrews)
GILBERT HARMAN (Princeton University)
FRANK JACKSON (Australian National University)
WILLIAM G. LYCAN (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
SYDNEY SHOEMAKER (Cornell University)
JUDITH j. THOMSON (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
RECENT TITLES
E. j. LOWE Subjects of Experience
LYNNE RUDDER BAKER Explaining Attitudes
ROBERT A. WILSON Cartesian Psychology and Physical Minds
BARRY MAUND Colours
MICHAEL DEVITT Coming to Our Senses
MICHAEL j. ZIMMERMAN The Concept of Moral Obligation
MICHAEL STOCKER with ELIZABETH HEGEMAN Valuing Emotions
SYDNEY SHOEMAKER The First-Person Perspective and Other Essays
NORTON NELKIN Consciousness and the Origins of Thought
MARK LANCE and JOHN O'LEARY HAWTHORNE The Grammar of Meaning
D. M. ARMSTRONG A World of States of Affairs
PIERRE JACOBS What Minds Can Do
ANDRE GALLOIS The World Without the Mind Within
FRED FELDMAN Utilitarianism, Hedonism, and Desert
LAURENCE BONJOUR In Defense of Pure Reason
DAVID LEWIS Papers in Philosophical Logic
DAVID COCKBURN Other Times
RAYMOND MARTIN Self-Concern
WAYNE DAVIS Implicature
DAVID LEWIS Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
AMIE THOMASSON Fiction and Metaphysics

Faces of Intention
SELECTED ESSAYS ON
INTENTION AND AGENCY
Michael E. Bratman
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http: //www.cup.cam.ac.uk
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http: //www.cup.org
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Michael E. Bratman 1999
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1999
Typeface Bembo 10.5/13 pt. System Penta [RF]
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bratman, Michael.
Faces of intention : selected essays on intention and agency / Michael E. Bratman.
p. cm. — (Cambridge studies in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-521-63131-9 (hardcover), - ISBN 0-521-63727-9 (pbk.)
1. Intentionality (Philosophy) 2. Agent (Philosophy) I. Title. II. Series.
B105.156B73 1998
128'.4-dc21 98-26459
CIP
ISBN 0 521 63131 9 hardback
ISBN 0 521 63727 9 paperback
Transferred to digital printing 2004
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