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Hume and the phenomenology of agency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Joshua M. Wood
Joshua M. Wood*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Wellesley College, 106 Central St. Founders Hall 322, Wellesley, MA02481, USA
*
*Email: jwood5@wellesley.edu
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Abstract

Some philosophers argue that Hume, given his theory of causation, is committed to an implausibly thin account of what it is like to act voluntarily. Others suggest, on the basis of his argument against free will, that Hume takes no more than an illusory feature of action to distinguish the experience of performing an act from the experience of merely observing an act. In this paper, I argue that Hume is committed to neither an unduly parsimonious nor a sceptical account of the phenomenology of agency.

Keywords

Humeactionphenomenologycausationfreedomnaturalism
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 44 , Issue 3-4 , August 2014 , pp. 496 - 517
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2014

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