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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Physics' and 'The Rationality of Science'

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2 ideas

20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / c. Reasons as causes

3871	Explaining an action is showing that it is rational [Newton-Smith]
	Full Idea: To explain an action as an action is to show that it is rational.
	From: W.H. Newton-Smith (The Rationality of Science [1981], X.2)

20042	We assign the cause of someone's walking when we say why they are doing it [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Why is he going for a walk? We say 'to be healthy', and having said that we have assigned the cause.
	From: Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 194b33-5)
	A reaction: Stout gives this as the predecessor of Anscombe's account of intentions. The thought is that the explanation of the act is its purpose. Such teleology is more plausible than the Aristotelian teleology about non-human events.