Essays on Anscombe's Intention

G.E.M. Anscombe's Intention firmly established the philosophy of action as a distinctive field of inquiry. Donald Davidson called it "the most important treatment of action since Aristotle." This collection of ten essays clarifies many aspects of Anscombe's challenging work and affirms her reputation as one of our most original philosophers.

G.E.M. Anscombe's Intention, firmly established the philosophy of action as a distinctive field of inquiry. Donald Davidson called this 94-page book "the most important treatment of action since Aristotle." But until quite recently, few scholars recognized the magnitude of Anscombe's philosophical achievement. This collection of ten essays elucidates some of the more challenging aspects of Anscombe's work and affirms her reputation as one of our most original philosophers. Born in 1919, Anscombe studied at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, where she later held a research fellowship. In 1941 she married philosopher Peter Geach, with whom she had seven children. A close friend of Wittgenstein, in 1946 she joined Oxford's Somerville College and spent the next twenty-four years there before being appointed to the Chair of Philosophy at Cambridge that Wittgenstein had held. She died in 2001 after her long career as a highly regarded analytic philosopher. This volume brings together fresh interpretations of Intention written by some of today's leading philosophers of action. It will enlighten Anscombe's readers who struggle with concepts they find puzzling or obscure, while providing a bracing corrective to doubts about Intention's significance and the gravity of what is at stake.

"This volume of essays originated in two conferences. The first, in September 2008, was held at the Philosophy Department of the University of Uppsala, sponsored jointly by the five year program Understanding Agency centered in Uppsala, and the Rational Agency section of the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo. The second was a Lipkind conference at the Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago, held in April 2009 in honour of the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth Anscombe's Intention"--Preface.

Introduction : Anscombe's Intention in context / Frederick Stoutland -- Summary of Anscombe's Intention / Frederick Stoutland -- Anscombe on expression of intention : an exegesis / Richard Moran and Martin J. Stone -- Action and generality / Anton Ford -- Actions in their circumstances / Jennifer Hornsby -- Anscombe on bodily self-knowledge / John McDowell -- The knowledge that a man has of his intentional actions / Adrian Haddock -- Knowledge of intention / Kieran Setiya -- Anscombe's Intention and practical knowledge / Michael Thompson -- Forms of practical knowledge and their unity / Sebastian Rodl -- Backward-looking rationality and the unity of practical reason / Anselm Muller -- An Anscombian approach to collective action / Ben Laurence.