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Acting Intentionally and Acting for a Reason
Maria Alvarez a
a
University of Southampton, UK
Online Publication Date: 01 June 2009
To cite this Article Alvarez, Maria(2009)'Acting Intentionally and Acting for a Reason',Inquiry,52:3,293 — 305
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Inquiry,
Vol. 52, No. 3, 293–305, June 2009
Acting Intentionally and Acting
for a Reason
Inquiry,
1502-3923
0020-174X
SINQ Vol. 52, No. 3, March 2009: pp. 1–24
Inquiry
MARIA ALVAREZ
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Maria
Acting
for
a Reason
Alvarez
Intentionally and Acting
University of Southampton, UK
(Received 17 December 2008)
ABSTRACT This paper explores the question whether whatever is done intentionally is
done for a reason. Apart from helping us to think about those concepts, the question is
interesting because it affords an opportunity to identify a number of misconceptions
about reasons. In the paper I argue that there are things that are done intentionally but
not done for a reason. I examine two different kinds of example: things done “because
one wants to” and “purely expressive actions”.
Concerning the first, I argue that the tendency to think that things done because one
wants to are things done for a reason derives from conflating the reason that explains
why someone did something with their reason for doing it. While these sometimes coincide,
they need not always do so. And although the fact that someone wanted to do something
can contribute to explaining the person’s action, it is not normally that person’s reason
for doing that thing.
Purely expressive actions also provide examples of things done intentionally but not
for a reason. I argue that, although those actions are spontaneous, they are nonetheless
intentional and that, since they are mere expressions of emotions, they are not done for
reasons – although there are reasons why we do them.
I. Introduction
The question I am going to explore in this paper is whether whatever is done
intentionally is done for a reason. I take it that the converse is true: everything
that is done for a reason is done intentionally. But it seems possible that
there are things that are done intentionally but not for a reason.
I think the question is interesting because it makes us think about the concepts of doing something intentionally and doing something for a reason,
Correspondence Address: Maria Alvarez, Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities,
University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. Email: m.alvarez@
soton.ac.uk
0020-174X Print/1502-3923 Online/09/030293–13 © 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00201740902917168
294
Maria Alvarez
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respectively, and also about the relation between them. Moreover, it affords
an opportunity to re-examine certain kinds of example generally regarded in
the literature as cases of things done for reasons but which I think are not.
And this is important because the view that those things are done for reasons
has contributed to a number of misconceptions about reasons – but I won’t
be able to go into that here.
Exploring the question whether there are things that are done intentionally but not done for a reason requires at least a working characterisation of
both doing something intentionally and doing something for a reason. I’ll
attempt to characterise them in that order.
II. Doing something intentionally
It is difficult to give a characterisation of what doing something intentionally
is without falling into mere stipulation. I will do my best to avoid the latter.
First, doing something intentionally is often contrasted with doing it accidentally, or by mistake, or in ignorance, and it is associated with meaning to
do it, doing it consciously, etc. I think these give us a clue to two features
that seem to be required for doing something intentionally: some awareness
of what one is doing, and some degree of control over it.
These concepts introduce their own complications. For instance, does
doing something intentionally require that one knows that one is doing that
thing? In Intention, Anscombe introduces the idea of “practical knowledge” as
a special kind of knowledge we have of what we do intentionally (Anscombe,
1957, p. 50ff.). By constrast, Davidson famously argued that knowledge is
not necessary for intentional actions, and used the example of making copies
with carbon paper to support his claim. He wrote:
a man may be making ten carbon copies as he writes, and this may be
intentional; yet he may not know that he is; all he knows is that he is
trying (Davidson, 1980, p. 50).
Davidson is surely right that a man may be trying to make ten carbon copies
without knowing whether he is succeeding, perhaps even doubting that he is.
And, if he does succeed, since making ten carbon copies is what he was
trying to do, it would seem that he made the ten copies intentionally. If this
is right, then it seems that the knowledge condition needs to be modified;
perhaps it should be construed as a disjunction: if A does something, X,
intentionally, then A knows either that he is doing X, or that he’s doing
something else, Y, with the intention of doing X. But it still seems that some
kind of awareness of what one is up to is required.
The other feature mentioned above is control. Exactly what degree of control
is required for doing something intentionally has also proved to be a signally
controversial issue. Some have argued that the control required involves the
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ability to refrain from doing what you did. Others deny this. For instance,
much discussion generated by Harry Frankfurt’s arguments against the
principle that a person is morally responsible for something he does only if
he could have “done otherwise” focuses precisely on this issue (Frankfurt,
1969). Frankfurt’s arguments were intended to show that a man may do
something, e.g. shoot another man, “for reasons of his own”, even though he
could not have acted otherwise (i.e., could not have failed to shoot the other
man). So if Frankfurt’s arguments are right, one could do something for a
reason even though one could not have acted otherwise; and a fortiori, one
could do something intentionally even though one could not have acted
otherwise. And this would mean that the control required for doing something intentionally is not the control to do it or to refrain from doing it.
Frankfurt’s arguments generated a great deal of controversy, as many
have been reluctant to abandon the view that moral responsibility requires
the ability to act otherwise. For myself, I am inclined to think that doing
something intentionally requires the capacity to act otherwise, and have
argued against Frankfurt’s arguments elsewhere (see Alvarez, 2009). But
perhaps we do not need to choose between these two positions here, as both
agree that some degree of control is required.
So we may say that doing something intentionally requires some awareness
of what one is doing and some control over it – however those are to be
cashed out. If one does something without knowing that one is doing it or
that one is trying, or without any control over it, then one does not do that
thing intentionally.
These seem minimal conditions for doing something intentionally. A further
question is whether more is required and if so, what that might be.
One obvious suggestion comes to mind here, namely that doing something
intentionally requires intending to do that thing.1 But, what is added to our
characterisation of doing something intentionally by saying that, if someone
does something intentionally, then she intended to do that thing? I think not
much need be added by saying this. This is because, although intending to
do something may involve having a prior and explicit intention to do it –
something like a conscious mental episode in which the intention is formed – it
need not. For the claim “A intended to open the door” may be construed to
involve simply the following: as A was engaged in whatever activity she was
engaged in – say, turning the handle – opening the door was the outcome
towards which that activity was directed by her. So this would be a case
where A intended to open the door and where, if she succeeded, she opened
the door intentionally, but where there needn’t have been any conscious
mental episode that consisted in A’s forming the intention to open the door.
Given this characterisation of what doing something intentionally is, we
can put aside certain examples of things that we do which fall short of being
done intentionally. Here are some examples: changes in posture and position
of one’s limbs done without being aware that one is doing those things; for
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instance, crossing and uncrossing one’s legs, resting one’s head on one’s
hand, leaning on one’s elbow, etc.; or fidgeting and similar, doings such as
twiddling with one’s hair, rocking one’s foot, rubbing one’s chin, rapping
one’s fingers on the table, etc., when these are done without awareness.
(There may be other kinds of example).
By “done without awareness” here, I do not mean instances where one
knows that one is doing something although one is not attending to it, or not
especially attending to it, at the time when one is doing it. Rather I mean
that one is not at all aware, as one is doing that thing, of doing it – even if
one knows, in general, that one tends to do that kind of thing. So I may
know that I tend to move my hands in a certain way when speaking and do it
while, say, asking a question at a seminar, without being aware then that I
am moving my hands so.
This kind of phenomenon has been discussed by philosophers. Aquinas,
for example, says that actions such as moving one’s foot or scratching one’s
beard “when intent on something else” are not actions that belong to
humans qua humans because they do not require the capacity to reason – i.e.,
they do not require the capacity for abstract thought (see ST, 1a2ae, q1, a.1).
Brian O’Shaughnessy has discussed this phenomenon in detail. He argues
that, sometimes, I may do something, such as move my tongue or my toes, and
that such an act is an action of mine, even though I have no awareness that I
am doing that thing “under any and all descriptions of it” (O’Shaughnessy,
1980, vol. 2, p. 58). According to O’Shaughnessy, these are not things I do
intentionally, since I have no awareness of doing them, but they are my
actions because they are not, he says, things that happen to me; rather,
according to him, these are “movements that I have executed”, and for which
“I, my mind, and brain are responsible” (Ibid.). O’Shaughnessy calls these
actions “subintentional actions”.
Whether acts of this kind are rightly characterised as O’Shaughnessy
suggests or not, I think it is clear that they are not things we do intentionally,
since there isn’t the required awareness. So, in a sense, I mention them to
note their existence and then put them aside. I shall now turn to the characterisation of doing something for a reason.
III. Doing something for a reason
I shall suggest that someone does something for a reason if she does it in the
light of some fact that she is aware of, and in pursuit of a goal. A fact in the
light of which someone acts I take to be the reason for which she acted;2 and
that in pursuit of which an agent acts, I take to be the agent’s goal in acting.
In the more common formulation of what acting for a reason is, reasons
are characterised as combinations of an agent’s beliefs and desires, and
agents are said to act in the light of their beliefs and in fulfilment of their
desires. I have not articulated my characterisation using those terms for a
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variety of reasons, among which is that that formulation encourages the view
that an agent’s reason for acting is a mental state (or a combination of mental states) of his, which I think is mistaken.3
A fact in the light of which an agent acts is something that, in the agent’s eyes,
makes his doing the thing in question good or valuable, either instrumentally
or non-instrumentally, and in relation to a variety of criteria: for example,
ethical, aesthetic, hedonic, prudential, and so on.
Since things can seem good either instrumentally or non-instrumentally,
our reasons may also be instrumental or non-instrumental. When something
is done for an instrumental reason, the reason for doing it is that it is a
means of achieving some further good (or further apparent good). Sometimes the action seems to be the best means, sometimes the only means, and
sometimes just a convenient or satisfactory means. For example, the fact
that a shop sells milk is normally an instrumental reason for me to go to the
shop, because the good of my going to the shop is instrumental: it will enable
me to buy milk. Going to the shop is a means to achieve my end: obtaining
milk. There may be other means of doing this: finding a cow and milking it,
stealing some milk from my neighbours’ doorstep, etc. But, I may not consider those other options and simply decide to go an buy some milk in the
shop, since they sell milk there.
By contrast, when a fact is someone’s intrinsic reason for doing something, that fact makes doing the thing good or valuable in itself, or at least
seems to the agent to do so. For example, that doing something is enjoyable,
healthy, an act of friendship, and so on, are facts that could, in someone’s
eyes, make doing that thing intrinsically good. When I do something for its
own sake I still do it for a reason, namely that doing it is (or seems to me to
be) good—whether it is morally good, prudentially good, hedonically good,
legally good, or good in some other way.
When something is done for an instrumental reason, it is always possible
to ask “Why?” again, until the answer is a non-instrumental reason: that is,
something that, to the agent, makes his doing that thing good or valuable in
itself. Because of this, we may say, paraphrasing Anscombe, that when
something is done for its own sake, the agent’s answer to why he did that
thing will “make an end of the question ‘Why?’” (Intention, p. 74. She makes
this point in relation to asking why one wants something).
This characterisation of doing something for a reason leaves open the
question what it is for someone to act for a reason – or to use my characterisation, what it is for someone to act in light of. This is something that philosophers have tried to elucidate in a variety of ways. The most familiar way is
one that claims that the elucidation must invoke ineliminably the notion of
causation in characterising the relation between the agent’s reason (or, more
plausibly, the agent’s believing and wanting something) and his action. I
shall not say anything about this issue here but will simply assume the concept of “acting in light of a fact”.
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With these characterisations in place, we can now turn to the question
whether there are things that are done intentionally but not for a reason.
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IV. Doing something for no reason
Suppose that I am walking down an empty corridor and conceive the idea of
doing a cartwheel, and with it the desire to do it. I don’t do the cartwheel to
exercise, or to see whether I am still capable of doing a cartwheel. I simply
do it because I feel like doing it. Similar examples are: pulling a face at someone in the middle of a meeting (but not, say, in order to make them laugh),
skipping as one walks along the road, touching a spot on the wall, etc.
These examples seem to fulfil the criteria set out above for doing something intentionally. For instance, as I do the cartwheel – I’m assuming that I
know that I can still do cartwheels – I know that I am doing a cartwheel, and
doing it is within my control. This may not always be the case: perhaps it is
possible to do a cartwheel without realising one is doing it – that seems a
little implausible in general but perhaps not for someone who is in the habit
of doing cartwheels. And perhaps it is possible to feel an irresistible compulsion to do a cartwheel, in which case one may wonder about the degree of
control. But it is surely plausible to say that I may do a cartwheel knowingly
and while being in control of what I do – we could imagine that I do it with some
premeditation: once the idea has come to my mind, perhaps I first look around
to make sure there indeed isn’t anyone looking, and then do the cartwheel.
And this is the kind of case I want to examine.
Now, doing a cartwheel in such circumstances seems to me an instance
of doing something intentionally but not for a reason. This instance of
cartwheeling is quite different from an instance when one does it while
training, or for an exam, or as part of a routine in the Olympics, or because
one enjoys doing cartwheels. In those cases, it is relatively easy to come up with
reasons for which one does cartwheels. In my example, by contrast, it seems
perfectly plausible to say that I did it for no reason: there was no end or purpose in pursuit of which I did it, nor any fact that, in my eyes, made doing it
seem good or valuable. There is, as we may say, nothing to be said for doing
it, I just felt like doing it – except perhaps that there was nothing to be said
against doing it. So I did it for no reason and yet I did it intentionally.
Surely, one may object, to say that I did the cartwheel for no reason in this
kind of case is just a way of saying that I did it simply because I wanted to,
that is, it is a way of saying that I did it for no other reason than that I wanted
to do it. So I did do it for a reason, the objector says, namely that I wanted to
do it. And if that is right, then I did the cartwheel intentionally but also for a
reason.
I find this response unpersuasive. When I do something for a reason, there
must be some aspect of the action that seems to me good or valuable in some
sense, some “desirability characterisation” (to use Anscombe’s phrase; see
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Intention, pp. 77–8) that the action has for me. In the example there is nothing, ex hypothesi, that makes the action appear to me as good or worthwhile,
and my wanting to do it does not supply this: the good I see in what I want is
not that I want it, for things do not seem desirable to me because I desire
them but rather I desire them because they seem desirable to me – even when
it might be quite difficult to articulate precisely what makes them so. To borrow an example from Anscombe, what makes my acquiring a pin desirable
to me cannot simply be that I desire to acquire one: there must be something
about acquiring a pin that makes it seem good because, e.g., it’s fun, reassuring,
etc. – which is my reason for wanting to acquire it and for acquiring it. But if
I insist in saying that there’s nothing to be said for it and that I acquired it
simply because I wanted to, then it seems to follow that I acquired the pin
for no reason.
An argument given to support the opposite claim, namely that when you
do something simply because you want to, your wanting to do that thing is
your reason for doing it, is that, in examples of this kind, your wanting to do
the thing plays a central role in the explanation of your doing that thing, a
role that fits the pattern of Davidson’s model for reason explanations of
action.4 But I think this arguments fails. First, it is not clear that this
example fits the Davidsonian model. According to Davidson,
C1. R is a primary reason why an agent performed the action A under
the description d only if R consists of a pro attitude of the agent
towards actions with a certain property, and a belief of the agent that
A, under the description d, has that property (Davidson, 1980, p. 5).
If we apply this model to our example, we get: “I did a cartwheel because I had
a pro-attitude (e.g. a desire) towards actions with a certain property
(namely, the property ‘being a cartwheel’), and also had a belief that my
action A, under description d (namely ‘doing a cartwheel’), had that property”; or more conversationally, “I did a cartwheel because I wanted to do a
cartwheel and believed that my action of doing a cartwheel was what? a
means? an instance? a way? of doing a cartwheel”. But this barely makes
sense, and the only reason to claim that I had such a belief is that then the
example will fit the Davidsonian model.5
Second, it seems to me true that we can cite my wanting to do a cartwheel,
or my feeling like doing it, to explain my action. But this does not show that
my wanting to do it was my reason for doing the cartwheel. For the fact that
a reason explains why someone did something does not show that that was
the agent’s reason for doing that thing, since not all explanations of why
someone did something give the agent’s reason for acting. The reason why
Fred sits at the back of the class may be that he is shy but the fact that he is
shy is not his reason for sitting there (his reason may be that the teacher is
less likely to see him if he sits there).
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I must emphasize that I am not claiming that people never do things just
because they want to, or because they feel like doing them. What I am trying
to say is that, when they do, and there is no more to say about their reasons
for wanting to do them, their action will be an action not done for a reason,
even though it may have been intentional and even though we can explain
why the agent did that thing by saying that they wanted to do it, or felt like
doing it.
It should be noted that doing something because you want to, or feel like
doing it, is different from doing something because you like or enjoy doing
that thing, or because doing that thing will be fun. If the reason why you did
something is that you like or enjoy doing that thing, then your reason for
doing that thing is, normally, that you like or enjoy it, which is perfectly
intelligible as your reason for acting – though, as Anscombe says (Intention,
pp. 72–77), there are limits here. The limits are not those of morality or propriety but of intelligibility, for sometimes it is difficult to see what the pleasure of doing a particular thing might be – for instance, the pleasure of sitting
in the Economy section of a budget airline plane for ten hours. And it is true
that if one feels like doing something, this may well be because one imagines
that doing that thing will, in some way, be pleasant or agreeable. If so, then
perhaps the reason for doing it is that it will also be pleasant and not merely
that you feel like doing it. But that would be different from the case where
one simply does it because one wants to, or feels like it, while not having
anything to say about what the good of doing that thing is, and where doing
that thing seems to serve no purpose.
Perhaps resistance to the thought that there are things we do intentionally
but not for a reason is rooted in the thought that things that are not done for
a reason are irrational. However, the examples I have given do not seem
examples of particularly irrational actions: at any rate, we can understand
why people do them perfectly well.
Irrationality can, however, be understood in (at least) two ways. One
involves doing something that goes against reason. In that sense these
actions are not irrational. In another sense, irrationality is to be understood
as involving acting in a way that is not dictated by reason. In that sense,
doing this kind of thing is irrational – or better non-rational, or a-rational.
This kind of behaviour is sometimes described as doing something crazy, or
just “for the hell of it”, etc. But irrationality, or craziness, is also, in a sense,
a matter of degree. I mean that if someone does this kind of thing now and
again, we’re unlikely to think much of it. We’ll think that they are pretty
normal – indeed, perhaps it’s not normal not to do things like this now and
again. But when someone’s behaviour frequently or largely falls into this kind
of pattern, then the grounds for describing their behaviour, and perhaps
them, as crazy or irrational become stronger.6
To sum up. There are things we do simply because we want to or feel like
doing them, where we are aware and in control of what we are doing, but
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where there is no reason for which we do them: there is no goal for the sake
of which that thing is done, nor is there any intrinsic worth or value that we
see in doing them: we simply do such things. So these seem to be things done
intentionally but not for a reason.
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V. Actions and expressions of emotions
I shall move on to a different kind of case that also seems to provide examples where one does something intentionally but not for a reason. Raz
discusses examples of this kind, which he calls “purely expressive actions”, in
his illuminating paper “Agency, Reason and the Good” (in Raz, 1999). His
discussion relates to a challenge (posed by, e.g., Rosalind Hursthouse, in
Hursthouse, 1991) to what he terms “the Classical approach” to the explanation of actions. According to Raz, the Classical approach “takes acting for a
reason to be the distinctive and central case of human agency”, and it explains
reason “in part by invoking value” (Raz, 1999, p. 22). Moreover, he says,
according to the Classical approach, “intentional action is action for a reason”,
and “reasons are facts in virtue of which those actions are good in some
respect and to some degree” (1999, p. 23).
So what are these purely expressive actions? Consider an example of
someone shouting out of anger. A person may shout because he is angry and
do so intentionally and for a reason. Thus, I may shout in order to make
some point, for instance, to show how important the object of my anger is
and because, in the circumstances, shouting is the way to bring the point
home. Or I may shout in order to relieve my anger, perhaps because it is a
way of releasing tension and thus of reducing my stress levels. In such cases I
shout for a reason, and my reason for shouting is that (as I think) this is the
only way to drive my point home, or that it’s the way to release the tension
and stress caused by my anger. But a person may shout because he is angry
and yet not do so for any reason or in pursuit of any goal. And often, when a
person shouts because he is angry, this is how it is: he does not shout for a
reason, and his shouting is simply an expression of his anger: that person, we
might say, shouts in anger. If so, this would be a purely expressive action.
The same seems true of actions that are merely expressions of joy or cheerfulness, and of certain things done out of fear, etc. Consider someone who
dances on hearing some good news: dancing maybe an expression of her joy
without it being true that she dances for a reason, or with any purpose,
although the fact that she feels joyful explains her dancing.
Raz acknowledges that these examples seem to be a challenge to the Classical
approach because they seem to be things that are done intentionally but not
for a reason. However, he thinks this is not quite right. And, in his discussion
of these examples, Raz says two things (though he says them in a tentative
way) that are intended to undermine the conviction that these are things
done intentionally but not for a reason. The first thing he says, which is
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intended to suggest that these are less than fully intentional actions, is that
actions of this kind, unlike paradigmatic intentional actions, “involve a
small loss of control” (1999, p. 41) and in particular are likely to involve a
diminution of control “over the initiation of the action” because “they
explode from within without [an] element of calculation” (1999, p. 42). The
second thing he says, which is offered against the idea that these are things
not done for a reason, is the consideration that these are “actions with a
story from the point of view of the agent, a story which can serve as a reason
– it merely did not function as a reason” (1999, p. 43).
Concerning the first, I am simply not persuaded that examples of this kind
typically involve a diminution of control. In fact, it seems to me that Raz
describes the kind of control typical of these cases accurately when he says
that, in these actions, “we merely allow the emotion to express itself, the will
acting as a non-interfering gate-keeper” (Ibid., p. 44). But the fact that the
will does not interfere and merely allows the emotion to be expressed in this
way does not mean that we, our wills, are not wholly in control. This would
follow only if the will were unable to interfere – but we have no reason to
conclude that that need be so. As Raz points out in the examples that
concern us, agents typically “do not disapprove of their actions” (1999, p. 43),
at least at the time of doing them. And that, rather than inability to control,
explains why agents do not suppress or exercise more control over their
actions. Thus, suppose I feel a surge of enthusiasm on hearing some news
and grab the person standing next to me and dance with her. I allow my
enthusiasm to manifest itself: since I do not see any reason not to do it, my
will doesn’t intervene to curb my enthusiasm. And it doesn’t seem true that
this behaviour need involve some diminution of control on my part. So,
I don’t think that the claim that these actions involve less control than
normal actions can be justified by the consideration that the agent did not
exercise more control – e.g., did not suppress or mitigate her behaviour.
Perhaps this is easier to accept when the emotion manifested is a positive
emotion (joy, affection, love) as one is less likely to have a reason not to
manifest that emotion, or not to manifest it in such an exuberant way, than
with more negative emotions, such as anger. For my shouting may be upsetting to others and that may be a reason not to shout. But unless I thought
that I should have suppressed or attenuated my behaviour but failed to do
so, the mere fact that I didn’t do so is not an indication of any diminution or
loss of control.
So because I do not see that these actions really involve any loss or diminution of control, I am not convinced that the point about control does the
work that Raz wants it to do in undermining the view that these are fully
intentional actions.
The second remark of Raz’s relates to a claim he makes earlier in that
paper, where he says that “although control is necessary to intentional action
it is not sufficient” (1999, p. 40); and he adds that what is also required is
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that the agent “has a story to tell about it, a story that makes its performance
intelligible” (1999, p. 40). This seems unobjectionable in itself. But when Raz
provides this story for the examples like the one about shouting in anger, he
says that “their explanations invoke considerations which are in fact reasons
for actions, and which could have been their reasons” (1999, p. 43). He goes on:
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For example, they may say they acted out of rage, adding or more
commonly implying that the action was an appropriate expression of
rage. Typically such explanations invoke motives rather than reasons,
but they state facts (that I was enraged and the action was an appropriate expression of my rage) which are also reasons for the actions thus
explained. (1999, p. 43)
I take it that what Raz means here is that these facts (that A was enraged
and the action was an appropriate expression of her rage) could have been
the agent’s reason for, say, shouting, or breaking crockery, although they
weren’t her reasons. And part of the point of this remark is to emphasise
how close these are to actions that he calls their “non-identical twins”:
Purely expressive actions are non-identical twins of actions for a purely
expressive reason, that is, actions one undertakes when the emotion
swells within, and one says to oneself, “Why should I not let rip? It’ll do
me good”, or “I am entitled to it”, or something like that. (1999, p. 41)
These are, Raz says, “actions undertaken in order to express something” and,
because they are “a tiny bit more calculated [than their non-identical twins], they
are ordinary actions for a reason, albeit a purely expressive one” (1999, p. 41).
I’ll make two points in response here. One is that I believe Raz’s remarks
about actions done “for a purely expressive reason” conflate facts that one
can cite to explain why one did something: “I was enraged; the action was an
appropriate expression, etc.”, with facts that might have been one’s reason
for acting. It seems to me that, even in these cases, the kinds of facts Raz
mentions are not the agent’s reason for doing those things (shouting, etc.).
For it is not as if, in these cases, one’s reason is that since one is enraged, it
would be appropriate to shout or to break crockery; that is, it is not the consideration that one is enraged that one would take to justify shouting, or to
make it appropriate – typically, what one might think justified shouting
would be whatever is the cause of one’s fury. Rather, the function of the
facts Raz mentions – that I am enraged etc., is (i) to place one’s action in a
pattern that gives its motive, i.e. shows it to be an instance of say, something
done in rage; and (ii) an attempt to justify it by showing that rage, and rage
expressed in just that way, was appropriate here. So to cite those facts is to
explain my action: to make it intelligible that I should have done what I did,
but not by giving my reasons for doing it.
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Maria Alvarez
My second point is that, even if in the case of actions done for purely
expressive reasons the kind of considerations Raz mentions are the agent’s
reasons for acting, nonetheless purely expressive actions (the examples that
concern us) are still themselves not things done for a reason. For even if
those facts could have been the agent’s reasons in our kind of example, they
were not, as a matter of fact, such reasons. And therefore they were not the
reasons for which those actions were undertaken.
So I think Raz gives no persuasive argument to abandon the view that
purely expressive actions are, at least sometimes, fully intentional but not
done for a reason. And I see no reason not to accept this view. It may be true
that these actions are not paradigmatic intentional actions – if paradigmatic
intentional actions are actions done for reasons. But they are intentional
actions nonetheless, and they are not uncommon in the repertoire of human
behaviour.
VI. Conclusion
There may be other examples of things done intentionally but not for a
reason. Perhaps some things done out of habit, and things done to satisfy
certain bodily desires may provide further examples. I do not have the space
to explore those examples here. My purpose in this paper was to show that
although many intentional actions are done for reasons, and perhaps this is
true of paradigmatic intentional actions, there is a range of things that we
seem to do intentionally but not for a reason. In themselves, many of these
actions, in particular things done for no reason, tend to have little significance. And that may be a reason why they are often ignored in the philosophy
of action. But however insignificant, they are important in order to understand both what reasons are, and also the kinds of agents we are. It seems
that to insist that those things are done for reasons is to try to make us into
much more rational creatures than we really are.7
Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
Though not, or not obviously, doing it with a further intention.
In characterising what acting for a reason is in this way, I am leaving aside complications
introduced by the fact that one can act in the light of what only seems (to the agent) to be a
fact, i.e., something that appeared to the agent to be the case but that wasn’t the case. I leave
them aside because I think those are, strictly speaking, cases of acting in the light of an
apparent fact and hence of acting merely for an apparent reason. However, arguing for that
claim would take us too far from our present concerns, and would introduce complications
that are not to the point in this discussion. I discuss these cases in detail in Alvarez, 2008.
Again, I have argued for the claim that reasons are facts and not mental states of agents
in detail in Alvarez, 2008.
This is a paraphrase of an argument given by Mele in support of the claim that desires
are reasons for which one acts when one does something simply because one wants to.
He writes:
Acting Intentionally and Acting for a Reason
305
singings motivated by such desires are intentional actions; it is standardly held that
intentional actions are done for reasons; this wholly intrinsic desire is the best available candidate for a relevant reason; the desire plays a central role in explaining the
action; and the role is very similar to that played by typical Davidsonian reasons.
(Mele, 2003, p. 82)
5.
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6.
7.
And here, I could not substitute “moving my arms and legs in this way” for “doing a
cartwheel” because that would give my reason for moving my arms and legs in that way
but not for doing the cartwheel. For, in my view similarly unsuccessful, attempts to argue
that Davidson’s model can fit all cases of voluntary action, see M. Smith, “Instrumental
desires, instrumental rationality”, PAS 78, 2004, pp. 93–109. See also E. Harcourt’s
reply, Ibid, pp. 111–129.
It is interesting to note that this can be true of at least some animals. It is disputed
whether animals act for reasons but it is less controversial that they act for purposes:
they direct their behaviour towards certain ends. Now, at least some animals can also
occasionally do things for no purpose. Sometimes such behaviour may come across as
playful, sometimes just as plain odd. But if, say, a dog’s behaviour were mostly so, that
is, if the dog did many things for which no purpose could be discerned, then we’d judge
that the dog had gone crazy.
This paper was presented at the “Human and Non-human Animal Agency” Conference
held in Oslo in April 2008. The Conference was organized by the Centre for the Study of
Mind in Nature (CSMN), University of Oslo, and was one of the Leverhulme-funded
“Rethinking the Philosophy of Action Network” activities. I should like to thank the
CSMN Centre and the Leverhulme Trust for making this event possible, and all participants
for their comments.
References
Alvarez, M. (2008) “Reasons and the ambiguity of ‘belief’”, Philosophical Explorations, 11(1),
pp. 53–65.
Alvarez, M. (2009) “Actions, thought-experiments and the ‘principle of alternate possibilities’”,
Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 87(1), pp. 61–81.
Anscombe, G.E.M. (1957) Intention (Oxford: Blackwell).
Aquinas, T. (1960–73) Summa Theologiae, T. Gilby (Ed.) (Cambridge: Blackfriars).
Davidson, D. (1980) Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Frankfurt, H. (1969) “Alternate possibilities and moral responsibility”, Journal of Philosophy,
66, pp. 829–39.
Harcourt, E. (2004) “Instrumental desires, instrumental rationality”, Proceedings of the
Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 78, pp. 111–29.
Hurtshouse, R. (1991) “Arational action”, Journal of Philosophy, 83, pp. 291–95.
Mele, A.R. (2003) Motivation and Agency (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
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Society, Supplementary Volume 78, pp. 93–109.