Phil 149/249G: Action Theory
Winter 2016
SYLLABUS
Instructor: Kevin Falvey
Office: 5709 South Hall
Office hours: TBA
E-mail: falvey@philosophy.ucsb.edu
Course description: In addition to perceiving and knowing about the world, persons
also act and thereby change the world. What is an action, and how is it different from a
mere event? What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for intentional action?
What is it to act for a reason? Is agency a special kind of cause? What are the
distinctive features of agents that enable them to act in the world? What is it to try to do
something? Do agents have a special kind of practical knowledge of what they are
doing, and if so, what role does this play in acting?
Course materials: The textbook, Action, by Rowland Stout (McGill-Queens University
Press, 2005) is available at the bookstore. A reader will be available at SBprinter, UCEN
2345, 699-6342. There will be a few additional readings made available on the course
website. The lectures will be for the most part about aspects of the readings so it is
important that you bring the assigned reading to class.
Website: phil149w16.wordpress.com. Here we will post assignments, class handouts,
and supplementary readings.
Course requirements: For 149: There will be three short (1000 word) writing
assignments, on topics to be assigned by the instructor. They will be due on January
26, February 16, and March 3. Each paper will be assigned a week in advance of its
due date. There will be a final exam, in class, on Wednesday, March 16, from 12:00 3:00 PM. Each paper will be worth 15% of the final grade and the final exam will be
worth 40% of the grade. Class attendance is also required and will count for 15% of the
grade. All work for the course must be completed in order to receive a passing grade.
No alternative arrangements for the final exam will be made except in documented
cases of illness, employment, or multiple exams on the same day.
Academic honesty: When a student submits a paper for a course, he or she
represents that it is his or her own work. Copying of passages from other sources,
including material on the web, is plagiarism and will be met with by measures including
but not limited to failure of the assignment in question and referral to the Office of the
Dean of Students for further disciplinary action. Similar remarks apply to other forms of
dishonesty such as cheating on in-class exams or falsifying attendance records.
Miscellaneous: Please be courteous and respectful to the instructor and to your fellow
students while in class. Do not talk, read the newspaper, or sleep in class. If you must
come late or leave early, please do so quietly.
Phil 149/249G: Action Theory
Winter 2016
Topics and Readings
I. Introduction
Stout, Chapter 1
II. Acting intentionally, reasons and causes
Stout, Chapters 2, 3 and 5
G.E.M. Anscombe, “Acting Intentionally,” Excerpt 1 from Intention (Harvard University
Press, 2000).
Donald Davidson, “Actions, Reasons, and Causes,” Essay 1 in Essays on Actions and
Events (Clarendon Press, 1980).
III. Agency, causation and basic action
Stout, Chapters 4 and 9 (through p. 146)
Donald Davison, “Agency,” Essay 3 in Essays on Actions and Events.
Jennifer Hornsby, “Actions and Bodily Movements,” Chapter 1 of Actions (Routledge,
1980).
IV. Acting with a further intention
Stout, Chapter 7
G.E.M. Anscombe, “The Intention With Which One Acts,” Excerpt 2 from Intention.
V. Deviant causal chains and causal processes
Stout, Chapter 6
Kevin Falvey, “Action as Practical Cognition,” (excerpt).
VI. Prior intention
Stout, Chapter 8
Donald Davidson, “Intending,” Essay 5 in Essays on Actions and Events.
VII. Trying
Stout, Chapter 9 (p. 147 to end)
Jennifer Hornsby, “Acting and Trying to Act,” Chapter 3 of Actions.
VIII. Practical Knowledge
G.E.M. Anscombe, “Practical Knowledge,” Excerpt 3 from Intention
Jennifer Hornsby, “Basic Action and Teleology,” Chapter 6 of Actions.
Falvey, “Action as Practical Cognition”