Recent advocates

Abstract

Abstract The final historical chapter begins by exploring the work of four early-twentieth-century metaphysicians, William James, F. C. S. Schiller, Hastings Rashdall, and the later work of G. F. Stout—each of whom bucked the trend of the time and developed versions of the volitional theory. The chapter continues by examining the work of Jean Piaget, whose 1927 book The Child’s Conception of Physical Causality conceptualized the development of human understanding of causality in essentially the same way that the volitional theory charts, even if the metaphysical conclusions he drew from that story were somewhat different. There can be no doubt that the dominant naturalism of the twentieth century made it a time largely unfriendly to the volitional theory of causation. However, it never quite went away, and the chapter concludes with an examination of one contemporary philosopher, John Searle, who in his 1983 work, Intentionality, puts forward a theory in which the intentional state of volitional is an integral part of the content of our concept of causality.