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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.
List of contents
- 1: Extended Action and Instrumental Rationality: The Structure of a Theory of Instrumental Rationality
- 2: Extended Theory of Rationality: Basic Tenets and Motivations
- 3: Pursuing Ends as the Fundamental Given Attitude
- 4: Indeterminate Ends and the Puzzle of the Self-Torturer
- 5: Future-Directed Intentions and the Theory of Instrumental Rationality
- 6: Persisting Intentions
- 7: Instrumental Virtues
- 8: Practical Judgment and its Corresponding Vices
- 9: Actions, Preferences, and Risk
About the author
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.
Summary
Rational Powers in Action presents a conception of instrumental rationality as governing actions that are extended in time with indeterminate ends. Tenenbaum argues that previous philosophical theories in this area, in focusing on momentary snapshots of the mind of idealized agents, miss central aspects of human rationality.
Additional text
Sergio Tenenbaum's excellent new book Rational Powers in Action raises a powerful challenge to mainstream theories of instrumental rationality.
