ECOM: Kinds of Action

On the philosophically received view, actions form a special subset of behaviors: they are behaviors motivated by reasons. Reasons, in turn, have often been construed in terms of agents’ propositional attitudes. This view has come under pressure in recent years, in part because it appears to exclude the behaviors of very young humans and nonhuman animals from the realm of action proper. The aim of “Kinds of Action” – to be held online on Sat Feb 25, 2023 – is to generate interdisciplinary discussion on varieties or types of action (and agency) that are of interest to philosophers, psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists, among others. We encourage contributions that discuss the notion of action as it has been used in different domains.

Conference Program:

9:00 - 9:15  --  Opening Remarks

9:15 - 10:15  --  Prof. Lucy O'Brien (UCL) - I, myself, move

10:20 - 10:50  --  Robert Reimer (Leipzig) - On causally complex actions - what does it mean to cause a change?

10:55 - 11:25  --  Selma Slocum Çetin (Koç) - Is trying the mark of agency?

11:30 - 12:00  --  M. Hadi Fazeli (Gothenburg & LGRP) - Can joint actions be passive and unintentional?

12:00 - 12:45  --  Lunch

12:45 - 1:15  --  Francesca Secco (Oslo) - Agential pluralism

1:20 - 1:50  --  Martin Niederl (Vienna) - Actions, reasons, and animals

2:00 - 3:00  --  Prof. John Schwenkler (FSU) - What happens when an animal acts?