Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:48:22.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Intending, knowing how, infinitives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Jennifer Hornsby*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, Humanity Faculty, Oslo, Norway

Abstract

Intellectualists tell us that a person who knows how to do something therein knows a proposition. Along with others, they may say that a person who intends to do something intends a proposition. I argue against them. I do so by way of considering ‘know how ——’ and ‘intend ——’ together. When the two are considered together, a realistic conception of human agency can inform the understanding of some infinitives: the argument need not turn on what semanticists have had to say about (what they call) ‘the subjects of infinitival clauses’.

Type
Distinguished Lecture
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 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

Anscombe, G. E. M. [1957] 2000.Intention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2009. “Intention, Belief, Practical, Theoretical.” In Spheres of Reason: New Essays in the Philosophy of Normativity, edited by Robertson, Simon, 3061. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Broome, John. 2002. “Practical Reasoning.” In Reason and Nature: New Essays in the Theory of Rationality, edited by Bermúdez, José and Millar, Alan, 85111. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dancy, Jonathan. 2009. “Action, Content and Inference”. In Wittgenstein and Analytic Philosophy: Essays for P. M. S. Hacker, edited by Hans-Johann, Glock and John, Hyman, 312335. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. 2001. Essays on Actions and Events. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David. 1979. “Attitudes De Dicto and De Se.” The Philosophical Review 88: 513543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, John. 1979. “The Problem of the Essential Indexical.” Noûs 13: 321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryle, Gilbert. [1949] 2009. The Concept of Mind: 60th Anniversary Edition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael. 2012. “Four Objections to the Standard Story of Action (and Four Replies)”. Philosophical Issues, 22: 387401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snowdon, Paul. 2011. “Rylean Arguments, Ancient and Modern.” In Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, edited by Bengson, John and Moffett, Marc A., 5979. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, Jason. 2011. Know How. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, Jason, and Williamson, Timothy. 2001. “Knowing How.” The Journal of Philosophy 98: 411444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Michael. 2008. Life and Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urmson, J. O. 1953. “The Interpretation of the Moral Philosophy of J. S. Mill.” Philosophical Quarterly 3: 3339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velleman, David J. 2007. Practical Reflection. Hume, David Series Edition. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar