Book contents
- Agency, Negligence and Responsibility
- Agency, Negligence and Responsibility
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Will and Blameworthiness
- Part II Agency, Reasons and Inadvertence
- Part III The Significance of Action in Negligence
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2021
- Agency, Negligence and Responsibility
- Agency, Negligence and Responsibility
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Will and Blameworthiness
- Part II Agency, Reasons and Inadvertence
- Part III The Significance of Action in Negligence
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The vast majority of the literature on responsibility tends to associate the idea of control with intentional action. This seems intuitive and natural. ‘Intentional action’ describes bodily movements executed because of and guided by reasons for action. How else, indeed, can a rational agent control their bodily movements? Disagreements among theorists arise, however, on the characterization of ‘reasons for actions’. On the standard account of action, reasons for action are a binomial of beliefs and desires construed as mental states.1 On a more sophisticated account of the standard view, reasons for actions involve plans that direct us and result in ways of self-governance.2 On the classical tradition of action, reasons for actions track good-making characteristics or values.
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- Agency, Negligence and Responsibility , pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021