Actions and explanations

The task this book has set itself is to develop a model that will explain the basic premise ([TBP]) by referring to an agent's beliefs concerning the reality of the particular, interacting party. The first step in fulfilling this task was taken in the previous chapter, where the relationship to be explained was elaborated on the basis of a number of shortcomings.

Now, to provide an explanation of the difference in interaction captured in the revised version of the basic premise clearly requires a picture of what we might call the ‘mechanics’ of interaction in cyberspace. That is, it requires some sort of understanding of the basic elements constituting interaction, of the notion of cyberspace and of how these elements are to be fitted together in order to constitute an explanation of the relationship in question.

The aim of this chapter is to outline different ways of modelling human intentional behaviour as it may be instantiated in interaction both inside and outside cyberspace, using a study of recent works on the concept of moral motivation. In addition to providing an understanding of the elements of human intentional action, these considerations will be assembled into an explanatory model to be used in the explanation of the basic premise ([TBP]) in later chapters.