4 - INTENTIONAL ACTION

Summary

Some actions are intentional and some are not. For example, Sarah's action of stepping on Susy's toes was not intentional, but Susy's subsequent action of stepping on Sarah's toes was intentional. Whether an action was intentional or not can be important. It can make a difference in our attitude toward the action and in our evaluation of it. What makes an action intentional? Let me rephrase the question. Given that ‘S's V-ing at t» is a canonical designator of an action, what is necessary and sufficient for the truth of ‘S's V-ing at t was intentional (SV-ed at t intentionally)»?

RELATIVITY TO DESCRIPTION

The same action can be intentional under one designator of it and not intentional under another. For example, ‘S's pirouetting at t» and ‘S's pirouetting clumsily at t» designate the same action. But it may nevertheless be correct to say that ‘S's pirouetting was intentional but S's pirouetting clumsily was not intentional.

Some canonical action-designators imply that the action they designate was intentional (at least under that designation), for example, ‘S's calling for help at t», ‘S's looking around her at t», ‘S's groping for the light switch at t», ‘S's deciding to run away at t», ‘S's mentally saying “nonsense” at t», or any of the form ‘S's intentionally V-ing at t». Other designators imply that the designated action was not intentional (at least under that designation), for example, any of the form ‘S's unintentionally V-ing at t».