Questioning the Normative Relevance of Philosophy of Action in Gideon Yaffe's Attempts

Abstract

In his recent book, Attempts, Gideon Yaffe offers an impressive and complex theory of the nature of trying. Through a skillful inquiry into the philosophy of action, Yaffe develops his Guiding Commitment View of trying, which is alleged to have strict implications for the legitimate criminalization of attempts. While there may be many controversial claims made by Yaffe in his metaphysical theory of trying, this comment focuses on the question of the ultimate relevance of Yaffe’s view for criminal law. It argues that even if Yaffe is correct in his philosophical inquiry into the nature of trying, it is not clear that the results of this inquiry bear in the strong ways alleged by Yaffe upon the ultimate question of the legitimate criminalization of attempts. Yaffe’s own repeated appeals to the distinction between guilt and commission of attempts betray the inadequacies of the analytically driven theory of trying presented...