Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T19:50:07.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Morality or Modality? What Does the Attribution of Intentionality Depend On?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Bence Nanay
Bence Nanay*
Affiliation:
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY13244, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It has been argued that the attribution of intentional actions is sensitive to our moral judgment (Knobe 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, see also Mele 2003, Phelan & Sarkissian 2008). I will examine these arguments and Suggest an alternative explanation for the experiments they are based on.

Joshua Knobe conducted the following experiment (Knobe 2003) to support this claim. Subjects were given two vignettes that differed only in one small detail and this difference influenced their attribution of intentionality. The first vignette was the following:

The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harm the environment.’

The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don't care at all about harming the environment. I jus)t want to make as much profit as I can. Let's start the new program.’

They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was harmed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 25 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Harman, Gilbert. 1979. ‘Practical reasoning.’ Review of Metaphysics 29 (1979) 431–63.Google Scholar
Hindriks, Frank. Forthcoming ‘Intentional action and the praise-blame asymmetry.’ Philosophical Quarterly.Google Scholar
Knobe, J. 2003. ‘Intentional Action and Side Effects in Ordinary Language.’ Analysis 63 (2003) 190–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knobe, J. 2004. ‘Intention, Intentional Action and Moral Considerations.’ Analysis 64 (2004) 181–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knobe, J. 2006. ‘The Concept of Intentional Action. A Case Study in the Uses of Folk Psychology.’ Philosophical Studies 130 (2006) 203–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knobe, J. 2007. ‘Reason Explanation in Folk Psychology.’ Midwest Studies in Philosophy 31 (2007) 90–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machery, Edouard. 2008. ‘The Folk Concept of Intentional Action: Philosophical and Experiential Issues.’ Mind & Language 23 (2008) 165–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallon, Ron. 2008. ‘Knobe vs. Machery: Testing the Trade-off Hypothesis.’ Mind & Language 23 (2008) 247–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mele, A. 2003. ‘Intentional Action: Controversies, Data, and Core Hypotheses.’ Philosophical Psychology 16 (2003) 325–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichols, Shaun & Ulatowski, Joseph. 2007. ‘Intuitions and Individual Differences: The Knobe Effect Revisited.’ Mind & Language 22 (2007) 346–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phelan, Mark & Sarkissian, Hagop 2008. ‘The Folk Strike Back: Or, Why You Didn't do it Intentionally, Though it was Bad and you Knew It.’ Philosophical Studies 138 (2008) 291–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zalla, Tiziana & Machery, Edouard ms. ‘The Concept of Intentional Action in Asperger's Syndrome.’ Manuscript.Google Scholar