Action Revisited

Abstract

A conception of agency proposed by Herbert E. Krugman, a social psychologist turned advertising researcher in 1967, that accounts for the impact of what Krugman called low involvement advertising on consumer purchasing behavior is examined for its novel implications for the theory of action. This account questions the assumption that the having of beliefs and desires is a conceptual condition for action. It yields a strongly contextual conception of agency, which sets aside the idea that action is always directed to the aim of reducing a discrepancy between actual and desired states. In order to gain a better understanding of this conception of agency, this paper recounts and explains its sources in Ebbinghaus’s studies on memory, Gestalt theory, and social psychology. It then contrasts the conception of agency that is derived from Krugman’s ideas with the Aristotelian conception of action, and the conception of action prevalent in mainstream contemporary Anglo-American ethical theory and philosophy of action. Finally, this article concludes on the fate that befell Krugman’s proposal in the marketing literature.