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Full Idea
Intentional actions are those to which a certain sense of the question 'Why?' is given application; the sense is of course that in which the answer, if positive, gives a reason for acting.
Gist of Idea
Intentional actions are those which are explained by giving the reason for so acting
Source
G.E.M. Anscombe (Intention [1957], p.9), quoted by Rowland Stout - Action 2 'Two kinds'
Book Ref
Stout,Rowland: 'Action' [Acumen 2005], p.15
A Reaction
This works better for grand large-scale actions than for small ones, like taking the knife out of the drawer before the fork. Kahnemann nowadays tells us that the reasons we articulate might not be the ones that are operative.
Related Idea
Idea 20044 The rationalistic approach says actions are intentional when subject to justification [Stout,R]
| 8351 | With diseases we easily trace a cause from an effect, but we cannot predict effects [Anscombe] |
| 8350 | Since Mill causation has usually been explained by necessary and sufficient conditions [Anscombe] |
| 8353 | Freedom involves acting according to an idea [Anscombe] |
| 8352 | To believe in determinism, one must believe in a system which determines events [Anscombe] |
| 10363 | Causation is relative to how we describe the primary relata [Anscombe, by Schaffer,J] |
| 4777 | The word 'cause' is an abstraction from a group of causal terms in a language (scrape, push..) [Anscombe] |
| 20041 | Intentional actions are those which are explained by giving the reason for so acting [Anscombe] |
| 7439 | The qualities involved in sensations are entirely intentional [Anscombe, by Armstrong] |
| 8065 | 'Ought' and 'right' are survivals from earlier ethics, and should be jettisoned [Anscombe] |
| 8069 | Between Aristotle and us, a Judaeo-Christian legal conception of ethics was developed [Anscombe] |
| 8070 | It would be better to point to failings of character, than to moral wrongness of actions [Anscombe] |