Intention (book)

Intention

Author	Elizabeth Anscombe
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	Intention
Published	1957
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	106 (2000 edition)
ISBN	978-0674003996

Intention is a 1957 book by the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe.

Summary

Anscombe argues that the concept of intention is central to our understanding of ourselves as rational agents. The intentions with which we act are identified by the reasons we give in answer to questions concerning why we perform actions. Such reasons usually form a hierarchy that constitutes a practical syllogism of which action itself is the conclusion. Hence our actions are a form of active practical knowledge that normally leads to action. Anscombe compares the direction of fit of such knowledge to a shopping list's relation to one's purchases, and contrasts it with the direction of fit characteristic of a list of those purchases made by someone observing one shopping. She contends that the mistake of post-medieval philosophy is to think that all knowledge is of the latter kind.^[1]

Scholarly reception

Intention initiated extensive discussion of intentional action and its explanation.^[2]

References

Notes

1. Baldwin 1999. p. 30.
2. Hacker 1995. p. 37.

Bibliography

• Baldwin, Thomas R. (1999). Audi, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-63722-8.
• Hacker, Peter (1995). Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866132-0.