An Essay on Human Action

By Michael J. Zimmerman

An Essay on Human Action seeks to provide a comprehensive, detailed, enlightening, and (in its detail) original account of human action. This account presupposes a theory of events as abstract, proposition-like entities, a theory which is given in the first chapter of the book. The core-issues of action-theory are then treated: what acting in general is (a version of the traditional volitional theory is proposed and defended); how actions are to be individuated; how long actions last; what acting intentionally is; what doing one thing by doing another is; what basic action is; and what omitting to do something is. Attention is also given to the concepts of causation, intention, volition, deciding, choosing, and trying. Finally, a libertarian account of free action is tentatively proposed and defended.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820401226
• ISBN13: 9780820401225
• Release Date: December 1984
• Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der W
• Length: 321 Pages