Name: Rational Powers in Action: Instrumental Rationality and Extended Agency
ISBN: 9780198889564

Rational Powers in Action: Instrumental Rationality and Extended Agency

Sergio Tenenbaum

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Human actions unfold over time, in pursuit of ends that are not fully specified in advance. Rational Powers in Action locates these features of the human condition at the heart of a new theory of instrumental rationality. Where many theories of rational agency focus on instantaneous choices between sharply defined outcomes, treating the temporally extended and partially open-ended character of action as an afterthought, this book argues that the deep structure of instrumental rationality can only be understood if we see how it governs the pursuit of long-term, indeterminate ends. These are ends that cannot be realized through a single momentary action, and whose content leaves partly open what counts as realizing the end. Sergio Tenenbaum argues that we need to focus on temporal duration and the indeterminacy of ends in intentional action, even to explain the rational governance of relatively simple actions. Theories of moment-by-moment preference maximization, or indeed any understanding of instrumental rationality on the basis of momentary mental items, cannot capture the fundamental structure of our instrumentally rational capacities. Tenenbaum provides a new theory of instrumental rationality as rationality in action.

Book Details

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publish Date: Nov 30th, 2023
Pages: 258
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.60in - 1.10in - 0.75lb
EAN: 9780198889564
Categories: • Mind & Body• Ethics & Moral Philosophy• Epistemology

About the Author

Sergio Tenenbaum

Sergio Tenenbaum is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the editor of Desire, Practical Reason, and the Good: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives (Oxford, 2010), and the author of Appearances of the Good: An Essay on the Nature of Practical Reason (Cambridge, 2007) as well as numerous articles in ethics, practical rationality, moral psychology, and Kant's practical philosophy.

More books by Sergio Tenenbaum

Book Cover for: Appearances of the Good: An Essay on the Nature of Practical Reason, Sergio Tenenbaum

What people are saying

Oxford Philosophy

@OUPPhilosophy

4 years

From the team at OUP | Home of #PhilosophyInFocus bringing focus to key themes of #philosophy through OUP's wealth of publishing. | Part of @OxUniPress

Join @sergioten at 8 - 10am CT tomorrow for an Author Meets Critics session #APACentral21, in which his book "Rational Powers in Action" which presents a new theory of instrumental rationality, will be discussed. Find out more about the book here: https://t.co/ZZXtvCPN9x https://t.co/1pQL73UNAh

Toronto-Brazilian-Jewish Philosopher with Kantian leanings. Tweets mostly about stuff. Opinions expressed here are correct.

Very pleased to see this incredibly thoughtful review of "Ratonal Powers in Action" by the excellent Erasmus Mayr https://academic.oup.com/mind/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/mind/fzac015/6582971

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What people are saying

Oxford Philosophy

@OUPPhilosophy

4 years

From the team at OUP | Home of #PhilosophyInFocus bringing focus to key themes of #philosophy through OUP's wealth of publishing. | Part of @OxUniPress

Toronto-Brazilian-Jewish Philosopher with Kantian leanings. Tweets mostly about stuff. Opinions expressed here are correct.

twitter.com