Action, Reasons, and Causes

Dozenten

Beschreibung

Some things just happen, some things are done. It is very important for us as human beings to think of ourselves as agents who actively bring about something, in contrast to, say, leaves being blown around by the wind. But what is the difference between actions and pure events? To begin with, it seems that actions are performed by subjects for reasons. It is possible to make some rational sense of them, whereas pure events just happen for causes without any rational consideration behind it. If some person deliberately jumps from a tree, she has some (more or less) rational reasons for it: Perhaps she wants to impress her friends with a test of courage. On the other hand, a leaf just falls down, as a result of natural causes.
But what is the exact relation between reasons and causes? Some philosophers think that reasons are just very particular causes - so that there is no principled difference between subjects and other very complex objects in nature and no principled difference between the sciences and the humanities. Others think that this is wrong and that rational reasons cannot be reduced to just a particular type of natural causes.
In this semianr, we want to read papers and book chapters from both perspectives. We will start with Donald Davidson`s seminal paper "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" which has had an enormous influence on the debate. We then will read papers from other prominent authors who partly react to Davidson and also have a strong impact on the current discussion (i.a. van Wright, Frankfurt, Dretske, Hutto, Velleman).
Participants should be ready to give a presentation on one of the papers; group presentations are possible. In addition, a written elaboration is required.

Weitere Angaben

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen)
Veranstaltungsnummer: 8.3333
Ort: 93/E07: Fr. 10:00 - 12:00 (14x), 93/E01: Freitag, 01.12.2017 08:00 - 10:00
Zeiten: Fr. 10:00 - 12:00 (wöchentlich), Ort: 93/E07, Termine am Freitag, 01.12.2017 08:00 - 10:00, Ort: 93/E01
Erster Termin: Freitag, 27.10.2017 10:00 - 12:00, Ort: 93/E07

Studienbereiche

• Philosophie > Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie
• Philosophie > Aufbaumodul Theoretische Philosophie: „Sprache & Denken“
• Cognitive Science > Bachelor-Programm
• Cognitive Science > Master-Programm