The Logic of Action

Abstract

The title of this session, ‘The Logic of Action’, has an intriguing ambiguity which I propose to exploit. In one sense, it invites me to offer views on the formal properties of the concept of action; in the other it suggests that I discuss whatever it is about action that, sometimes, makes it logical. In my own thinking, I have found these two themes to be closely related. I have tended to begin with the question, what makes actions logical? and I have answered by saying that an action is logical if it is reasoned, and then I have tried to say what a reasoned action is. In doing so, I have found it necessary to make certain assumptions about what action is — the logic of action in the other sense — and so have felt under a growing obligation to work out an account of the concept of action compatible with these assumptions.