Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought PDF
Preview Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought
Life and Action Life and Action elementary structures of practice and practical thought Michael Thompson harvard university press Cambridge,Massachusetts London,England 2008 Copyright©2008bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Thompson,Michael,prof.,1959– Lifeandaction : elementarystructuresofpracticeandpracticalthought / MichaelThompson. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-674-01670-5(alk.paper) 1.Ethics. 2.Conductoflife. 3.Life. 4.Agent(Philosophy) 5.Act (Philosophy) I.Title. BJ37.T49 2008 191—dc22 2007043818 Contents Introduction 1 part one The Representation of Life 1 Introductory 25 2 CanLifeBeGivenaRealDefinition? 33 3 TheRepresentationoftheLivingIndividual 49 4 TheRepresentationoftheLife-FormItself 63 part two Naive Action Theory 5 Introductory 85 6 TypesofPracticalExplanation 97 7 NaiveExplanationofAction 106 8 ActionandTime 120 part three Practical Generality 9 TwoTendenciesinPracticalPhilosophy 149 10 PracticesandDispositionsasSourcesofthe GoodnessofIndividualActions 167 vi Contents 11 PracticeandDispositionasSourcesof IndividualAction 192 Acknowledgments 213 Index 215 Life and Action Introduction this work comprises three philosophical investigations, each pertain- ing to a different sphere of concepts, and through this sphere of con- ceptstoadifferentstratumofbeing,aswemightsay.Thefirstinvesti- gation,“TheRepresentationofLife,”isorganizedaroundtheconcepts life, living being, vital process, vital operation and, above all, life-form or ‘species’. The second investigation, “Naive Action Theory,” is similarly organizedaroundtheconceptsaction,intentionandwanting,andcertain elementary appearances of the concept reason for acting—or, equiva- lently, certain elementary ways in which an action can depend on a thoughtorconsideration.Thethemeofthefinalinvestigation,“Prac- ticalGenerality,”isfixedinturnbytheconceptspracticaldispositionand socialpractice,andbycertainfurtherdistinctiveappearancesofthecon- cept reason for acting that are specially allied to these concepts—or, again,withcorrelativeformsofdependenceofactiononthought.The investigations might perhaps be read independently, but they share a commonpurpose,acommonmethod,andamassofsubstantiveinter- relations; my purpose in the three following sections of this introduc- tionwillbetobringouttheseconnectionsinapreliminaryway. Thethreerangesoftopicsarenestedintheobvioussensethatphe- nomena coming under concepts in one sphere are presupposed in the constitution of phenomena coming under the concepts in the next sphere: a practice is not possible except where action is possible, and 1
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