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No Strings Attached: Functional and Intentional Action Explanations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Mark Risjord
Mark Risjord*
Affiliation:
Emory University
*
†Philosophy Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322.
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Abstract

Functional explanation in the social sciences is the focal point for conflict between individualistic and social modes of explanation. While the agent thought she was acting for reasons, the functional explanation seems to reveal the hidden strings of the puppet master. This essay argues that the conflict is merely apparent. The erotetic model of explanation is used to analyze the forms of intentional action and functional explanations. Two explanations conflict if either the presuppositions of their respective why-questions conflict or the typical answers identified by their relevance criteria conflict. While a functional explanation may have the same topic and foil as an intentional action explanation, both the why-questions and their typical answers are compatible.

Type
Philosophy of Social Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1999 , 1999 , pp. S299 - S313
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

This essay benefited from critical commentary by James Bohman, Paul Davies, and Elizabeth Preston.

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