Negative actions

• Verfasst von: Payton, Jonathan D. [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Negative actions
• Titelzusatz: events, absences, and the metaphysics of agency
• Verf.angabe: Jonathan D. Payton (Bilkent University)
• Verlagsort: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA ; Port Melbourne, VIC ; New Delhi, India ; Singapore
• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Jahr: 2021
• Umfang: viii, 238 Seiten
• Fussnoten: Enthält Literaturangaben und Index
• ISBN: 978-1-108-83979-2
• ISBN: 978-1-108-81373-0
• ISBN: |o|9781108885157
• Schlagwörter: (s)Handlung / (s)Ereignis / (s)Intentionalität / (s)Philosophie
• Sprache: eng
• Bibliogr. Hinweis: Erscheint auch als : Online-Ausgabe: Payton, Jonathan: Negative actions. - Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2021 |(DLC)2020042251
• Bibliogr. Hinweis: Erscheint auch als : Online-Ausgabe: Payton, Jonathan D.: Negative actions. - Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2021. - 1 Online-Ressource (viii, 238 Seiten)
• K10plus-PPN: 1737211904

Abstract

"Negative actions (intentional omissions, refrainments, etc.) seem to be genuine actions. The standard metaphysical theories of action are event-based: they treat actions as events of a special kind. But it seems that many (and perhaps all) negative actions are, not events, but absences thereof. In this book, I provide a comprehensive treatment of this problem and its solution. I trace the appearance that negative actions are mere absences to the widely-assumed view that negative action sentences (sentences which describe an agent as omitting, refraining, etc.) are negative existentials, reporting the non-occurrence of an event of a certain kind. I argue, on the contrary, that such sentences report the occurrence of an event, not the absence of one. Moreover, I show how these events can be identified with ordinary, positive events of the sort we should already have in our ontology. In developing these views, I provide a comprehensive picture of the metaphysics of negative actions, the nature of our thought and talk about them, and their place in a theory of action and agency"--