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MENTAL ACTION AND
THE CONSCIOUS MIND
Edited by Michael Brent and Lisa Miracchi Titus
Mental Action and
the Conscious Mind
Mental action deserves a place among foundational topics in action the-
ory and philosophy of mind. Recent accounts of human agency tend to
overlook the role of conscious mental action in our daily lives, while
contemporary accounts of the conscious mind often ignore the role of
mental action and agency in shaping consciousness. This collection aims
to establish the centrality of mental action for discussions of agency and
mind. The thirteen original essays provide a wide-ranging vision of the
various and nuanced philosophical issues at stake. Among the questions
explored by the contributors are:
• Which aspects of our conscious mental lives are agential?
• Can mental action be reduced to and explained in terms of non-
agential mental states, processes, or events?
• Must mental action be included among the ontological categories
required for understanding and explaining the conscious mind more
generally?
• Does mental action have implications for related topics, such as
attention, self-knowledge, self-control, or the mind-body problem?
By investigating the nature, scope, and explanation of mental action, the
essays presented here aim to demonstrate the significance of conscious
mental action for discussions of agency and mind. Mental Action and
the Conscious Mind will be of interest to scholars and graduate students
working in philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, and philosophy of
agency, as well as to philosophically inclined cognitive scientists.
Michael Brent is a Responsible AI Expert at Boston Consulting Group
(BCG). Prior to emerging from the cloistered walls of the academy, he was
an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Denver, USA.
His published work has appeared in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy,
Journal of Buddhist Ethics, and Philosophical Psychology.
Lisa Miracchi Titus is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, USA, where she is also a General Robotics, Auto-
mation, Sensing, and Perception (GRASP) Lab Faculty Affiliate and a
MindCORE Faculty Affiliate. Her published work has appeared in the
Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Conscious-
ness, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research, and Synthese.
Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
Perspectives on Taste
Aesthetics, Language, Metaphysics, and Experimental Philosophy
Edited by Jeremy Wyatt, Julia Zakkou, and Dan Zeman
A Referential Theory of Truth and Falsity
Ilhan Inan
Existentialism and the Desirability of Immortality
Adam Buben
Recognition and the Human Life-Form: Beyond Identity and Difference
Heikki Ikäheimo
Autonomy, Enactivism, and Mental Disorder
A Philosophical Account
Michelle Maiese
The Philosophy of Fanaticism
Epistemic, Affective, and Political Dimensions
Edited by Leo Townsend, Ruth Rebecca Tietjen, Hans Bernhard
Schmid, and Michael Staudigl
Mental Action and the Conscious Mind
Edited by Michael Brent and Lisa Miracchi Titus
Epistemic Injustice and the Philosophy of Recognition
Edited by Paul Giladi and Nicola McMillan
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.
routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Contemporary-Philosophy/book-
series/SE0720
Mental Action and the
Conscious Mind
Edited by Michael Brent and
Lisa Miracchi Titus
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Michael Brent and Lisa
Miracchi Titus; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Michael Brent and Lisa Miracchi Titus to be
identified as the author[/s] of the editorial material, and of
the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-07751-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07115-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-02257-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429022579
Typeset in Sabon
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For Louisa, whose mental actions continue
to astonish and delight –M.B.
For Noah and Neva, who continually teach me how
rewarding jumping in midstream can be. –L.T.
Contents
List of contributors xi
Preface xii
Introduction 1
LISA MIRACCHI TITUS AND MICHAEL BRENT
1 Disappearing Agents, Mental Action, Rational Glue 14
JOSHUA SHEPHERD
2 How to Think Several Thoughts at Once: Content
Plurality in Mental Action 31
ANTONIA PEACOCKE
3 Attending as Mental Action: Mental Action as Attending 61
WAYNE WU
4 The Most General Mental Act 79
YAIR LEVY
5 Mental Action and the Power of Effort 100
MICHAEL BRENT
6 Inference as a Mental Act 122
DAVID HUNTER
7 Reasoning and Mental Action 142
MARKOS VALARIS
8 Causal Modeling and the Efficacy of Action 164
HOLLY ANDERSEN
