Rational Powers in Action - Instrumental Rationality and Extended Agency

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.

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.

Product details

• Authors: Sergio Tenenbaum, Sergio (Professor of Philosophy Tenenbaum, Tenenbaum Sergio
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2023
• EAN: 9780198889564
• ISBN: 978-0-19-888956-4
• No. of pages: 258
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body, PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics & moral philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge, Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge