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Best introductory texts in philosophy of action?

Brian Leiter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM FEBRUARY 11–MORE COMMENTS WELCOME (INCLUDING CONCURRENCES!)

Continuing with our new series about the best introductory texts in various areas of philosophy, I now invite readers to name what they think are the best introductory texts in philosophy of action (including, but not limited to, free will).  As before, don't just name a text, but say something about why you think it's particularly notable or valuable.  Although you don't have to sign  your comment, I do think signed ones will carry more weight with readers.

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10 responses to “Best introductory texts in philosophy of action?”

  1. John Fischer

    I very much like Robert Kane's Free Will: A Contemporary Introduction (OUP, Fundamentals of Philosophy Series). (I should note that I am a co-editor of this series.) For a more detailed and somewhat more advanced, but still accessible book, I also highly recommend McKenna and Pereboom's text, Free Will (Routledge).

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  2. David Velleman

    The best text in the philosophy of action is likely to be Sarah Paul's as-yet unpublished "The Philosophy of Action: A Contemporary Introduction", under contract with Routledge. (I've read the ms.)

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  3. Mark Bernstein

    Ditto, for Kane's book. Also the substantial introduction to Kane's (underappreciated) first book- Free Will and Values (SUNY)- is terrific. In addition- though modesty undoubtedly prevents him from saying this- any introduction to free will written by John- is great.

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  4. Jussi Suikkanen

    In the free will debates, I love the Four Views on Free Will book (Blackwell 2007) where the prominent defenders of the different positions (Fischer, Kane, Pereboom and Vargas) intruduced and defended their views in a very engaging way. I wish there were more books like this in other areas where you get a genuine sense of a philosophical dialogue. In terms of philosophy of action, I can recommend Lilian O’Brien’s Philosophy of Action (Palgrave Macmillan), which covers the key issues in the recent debates very clearly.

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  5. Josh Shepherd

    I'm excited about Sarah Paul's book. I would also recommend Lilian O'Brien's 'Philosophy of Action,' 2015 with Palgrave Macmillan.

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  6. Megan

    Chiming in to also register excitement for Sarah Paul’s forthcoming book which I’m sure will be incredible and is much-needed in terms of comprehensiveness. philosophy of action tends to be very topically disjointed, with books usually focusing on just one or two topics therein. For a good overview of non-causal theories of action, _Essays on Anscombe’s Intention_ is brilliant. Eric Wiland has a very accessible book, _Reasons_, on reasons and explanations in action.

    BL: Just a cautionary note that I doubt "Essays on Anscombe's Intention" is really *introductory*!

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  7. Megan

    Certainly not good for introducing students to general philosophy of action, though quite good (I think) for introducing more advanced students to Anscombe (and similar thinkers). So it depends who is being introduced?

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  8. Megan

    Mele also has a good edited volume that includes the standards like “Actions, Reasons, Causes” and other such classic primary sources.

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  9. Ty

    John Lemos, ‘Freedom, Responsibility, and Determinism' (Hackett, 2013) is a nice dialogue book. It’s quite short (about 100 pages), so I used it as a part of an intro course (which just worked thru dialogues).

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  10. Levin

    I'm currently writing my thesis on PoA—what a shame that Paul's book is not out yet. Her papers on this topic are nothing short of excellent.

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