11 - Practices and a ‘Theory’ of Action? Some Conceptual Issues Concerning Ends, Reasons and Happiness

Summary

This chapter is devoted to some of the philosophical issues that arise in the context of action, taking issue with the thesis that the turn to practices will lead to a better ‘theory’ of international relations or of social action. I first examine different choice-approaches and show why they are false friends; that is, they rely on misleading analogies. Here rational choice (goal means rationality), technique (techne), or the production of an object, systems (whole/ part distinctions), and teleologies or ideal theories concerned with the clarification of normative principles are found wanting. Common to all these different approaches is the notion that action can be subjected to a theoretical gaze, be it the view from nowhere or of being able to determine where we are from the point of the ‘end of history’. After some preliminary criticism I show 12 important differences that characterize action and that are overlooked when we think that such views are helpful for understanding praxis.