Price, A. W. Birkbeck College, University of London
Print publication date: 2008 (this edition)
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2008
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-953479-1







doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199534791.003.0001

A. W. Price
Abstract: There is no special logic of practical inferences. Intentions, like beliefs, have contents that are subject to standard logic. Yet being a special kind of belief, they have a role in causing, and not just expecting, action. Practical inference, like action itself, is in the service of an end of action, and is intelligible within that teleological perspective. ‘I will U+03C6 may entail ‘I will U+03C8’, and both be possible objects of intention, without their being intelligibly related by a practical inference; for inferring ‘I will U+03C8 may get the agent who intends to U+03C6 no closer to U+03C6-ing (as is evident when U+03C8 means U+03C6 or U+03C7’, with an arbitrary U+03C7). Other inferences may look practical, but fail to serve any goal within their contingent context. The assessment of a piece of practical inference must be sensitive to the teleology of intentions.

Keywords: logic, intention, end, teleology,

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