BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

Agency and causal explanation

Hornsby, Jennifer (1993) Agency and causal explanation. In: Heil, J. and Mele, A. (eds.) Mental Causation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198239291.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Book synopsis: Common sense and philosophical tradition agree that mind makes a difference. What we do depends not only on how our bodies are put together, but also on what we think. Explaining how mind can make a difference has proved challenging, however. Some have urged that the project faces an insurmountable dilemma: either we concede that mentalistic explanations of behaviour have only a pragmatic standing or we abandon our conception of the physical domain as causally autonomous. Although each option has its advocates, most theorists have sought a middle way that accommodates both the common-sense view of mind and the metaphysical conviction about the physical world. This volume presents a collection of new, specially written essays by a diverse group of philosophers, each of whom is widely known for defending a particular conception of minds and their place in nature.

Metadata

Item Type: Book Section
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
Depositing User: Sarah Hall
Date Deposited: 16 Jan 2018 11:39
Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:38
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/20868

Statistics

6 month trend
0Downloads
6 month trend
414Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item
Edit/View Item