A Teleofunctionalist Solution to the Problem of Deviant Causal Chains of Actions

Kriterion – Journal of Philosophy (3-4):247-261 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Donald Davidson’s causal theory of actions states that actions must be rationalized and caused by a belief-desire-pair. One problem of such a causal theory are cases of deviant causal chains. In these cases, the rationalized action is not caused in the right way but via a deviant causal chain. It therefore intuitively seems to be no action while all conditions of the causal theory are met. I argue that the problem of deviant causal chains can be solved by adding a teleofunctionalist condition. This condition requires that the belief-desire pair that rationalizes an action must cause that action in a selection-historically normal way. I try to show that this additional condition drops counterintuitive cases of deviant causal chains out of the class of actions while being flexible enough to classify such cases as actions in which causal detours are intuitively permissible.

Author's Profile

Jakob Roloff
Universität Giessen

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-11-18

Downloads
219 (#62,071)

6 months
219 (#9,654)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?