Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:35:22.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The logical form of negative action sentences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Jonathan D. Payton
Jonathan D. Payton*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
*
Email: jonathan.payton@mail.utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is typically assumed that actions are events, but there is a growing consensus that negative actions, like omissions and refrainments, are not events, but absences thereof. If so, then we must either deny the obvious, that we can exercise our agency by omitting and refrainment, or give up on event-based theories of agency. I trace the consensus to the assumption that negative action sentences are negative-existentials, and argue that this is false. The best analysis of negative action sentences treats them as quantifying over omissions and refrainments, conceived of as events.

Keywords

Omissionsnegative actionsaction sentencesRandolph ClarkeDonald Davidson
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 46 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 855 - 876
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alvarez, M., and Hyman, J.. 1998. “Agents and Their Actions.” Philosophy 73: 219–245. 10.1017/S0031819198000199CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bach, K. 2010. “Refraining, Omitting, and Negative Acts.” In A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, edited by O’Connor, T. and Sandis, C., 50–57. Malden: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belnap, N., and Perloff, M.. 1988. “Seeing to It That: A Canonical Form for Agentives.” Theoria 54: 175–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, S. 2014. “Omissions as Possibilities.” Philosophical Studies 167: 1–23. 10.1007/s11098-013-0229-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, K. 1990. Abstract Particulars. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Clarke, R. 2010. “Intentional Omission.” Noûs 44: 158–177. Reprinted in Causing Human Actions: New Perspectives on the Causal Theory of Action, edited by Aguilar, J. and Buckareff, A.. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, R. 2014. Omissions: Agency, Metaphysics, and Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199347520.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Donald. 1967. “The Logical Form of Action Sentences.” In The Logic of Decision and Action, edited by Rescher, N., 105–122. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press. Reprinted inDavidson, D.. 2001. Essays on Actions and Events. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. 1969. “The Individuation of Events.” In Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel, edited by Rescher, N., 163–180. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Reprinted in D. Davidson. 2001. Essays on Actions and Events. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. 1985. “Reply to Bruce Vermazen.” In Essays on Davidson: Actions and Events, edited by Vermazen, B. and Hintikka, M. B., 217–221. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hornsby, J. 1980. Actions. London: Routledge & Keagan Paul.Google Scholar
Hornsby, J. 2004. “Agency and Actions.” In Agency and Action: Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, edited by Hyman, J. and Steward, H., 1–23. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Horty, J., and Belnap, N.. 1995. “The Deliberative Stit: A Study of Action, Omission, Ability, and Obligation.” Journal of Philosophical Logic 24: 583–644. 10.1007/BF01306968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J.. 1976. “Events as Property Exemplifications.” In Action Theory, edited by Brand, M. and Walton, D., 33–52. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Reprinted in Kim. 1993. Supervenience and Mind: Selected Philosophical Essays. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
King, J. 2002. “Designating Propositions.” Philosophical Review 111: 341–371. 10.1215/00318108-111-3-341CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludwig, K. 2010. “Adverbs of Action and Logical Form.” In A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, edited by O’Connor, T. and Sandis, C., 40–49. Malden: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, M. S. 2009. Causation and Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256860.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, T. 1990. Events in the Semantics of English. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Payton, J. D. 2016a. “The Metaphysics of Negative Action.” PhD diss., University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Payton, J. D. 2016b. “Why the Causal Theory of Action Has to Accommodate Intentional Omissions.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Payton, J. D. 2016c. “How to Identify Negative Actions with Positive Events.” Unpublished manuscriptGoogle Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. 1948. “On What There is.” Review of Metaphysics 2: 21–38.Google Scholar
Smith, M. 2010. “The Standard Story of Action: An Exchange (1).” In Causing Human Actions: New Perspectives on the Causal Theory of Action, edited by Aguilar, J. and Buckareff, A., 45–55. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Steward, H. 2012. “Actions as Processes.” Philosophical Perspectives 26: 373–388. 10.1111/phpe.2012.26.issue-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steward, H. 2013. “Responses.” Inquiry 56: 681–706. 10.1080/0020174X.2013.841055CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, M. 2008. Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 10.4159/9780674033962CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vermazen, B. 1985. “Negative Acts.” In Essays on Davidson: Actions and Events, edited by Vermazen, B. and Hintikka, M. B., 93–104. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2000. Knowledge and Its Limits. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar