Skilled Action and the Double Life of Intention

Shepherd, J., (2019), 'Skilled action and the double life of intention', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol: 98(2): 286-305 [PMC6436716]

In bodily intentional action, an agent exercises control over her bodily behavior. An important part of the explanation of this involves a mental state of commitment to an action plan—that is, the agent's intention. The agent's intention (or its acquisition) initiates the action, and the continuance of the intention throughout the unfolding action plays important causal roles in sustaining and guiding the action to completion. But the agent's intention is not the only mental state operative in bodily intentional action. Recent work has emphasized important roles for lower‐level states as well: so‐called motor representations (Decety et al. 1994, Pacherie 2008). These lower‐level states specify movement details and movement outcomes in ways that respect fine‐grained biomechanical and temporal constraints upon intention satisfaction [continue reading...]

Grant: 'The Ethical Significance of Consciousness for Bioethics' [WT104347], Dr Joshua Shepherd | Open Access papers EuropePMC

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