Facing the Future: Agents and Choices in Our Indeterminist WorldHere is an important new theory of human action, a theory that assumes actions are founded on choices made by agents who face an open future. It is a theory that makes indeterminism not only intelligible but illuminating. Tools from philosophy of language and philosophical logic help generate a full-scale account of agents "seeing to it that." The authors then proceed to clarify a variety of action-related topics such as determinism vs. indeterminism, imperatives, promises, strategies, joint agency, "could have done otherwise," deontic constructions, and assertions about a not yet settled future. |
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A&[a stit AC structure achievement stit action Admh(s Ahab assertion problem backward branching Barcan formula BT+ AC BT+I+ AC BT+I+AC structure busy choice sequence busy choosers causal chain chapter Chellas choice equivalent concept consider context parameter cstit d'Artagnan defined definition deliberative stit deontic logic discussion Dom(s domain embedded evaluation example fact false finite future g+(m grammar guarantee h₁ h₂ hence idea imperative implies indeterminism indeterministic Instant iTree language Lemma logic of agency m₁ modal logic negation negative condition non-agentive Oblg Oblg:[a dstit obligation outcome paraphrase possible choice postulate promising PROOF proposition Queequeg refref represent semantic sense set of histories settled true speech act stand-alone sentences stit sentence stit theory T-companion set tense tense logic theorem theory of strategies Thin Red Line truth value w₁ witness word-giving
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Page 4 - The beginning of sense, not to say wisdom, is to realize that 'doing an action', as used in philosophy,1 is a highly abstract expression it is a stand-in used in the place of any (or almost any?) verb with a personal subject, in the same sort of way that 'thing...