Theories of Action

Abstract

It is a commonplace that human actions can be viewed in a variety of different and even incompatible ways. It is not surprising, therefore, that competing theories of action exist in all fields where the subject of study is human action. In this book our focus will be on philosophical accounts of action and especially of social action (viz. multi-agent) action. There are also factual theories of action, for instance in psychology and social psychology. For instance, the so-called theories of motivation are such factual theories of action. We shall be less concerned with them in this work. Finally, there are what might be called normative theories of action. Here I have in mind not only traditional ethical theories but also and especially (factually interpreted) decision theory and game theory. Although we shall discuss game theory in this work we shall do it not so much because this theory is a normative theory of action as because it serves to clarify the structure of strategically interconnected multi-agent actions. Thus, while game theory is not a philosophical theory of action, our theory to be developed will have important connections with this theory because both theories are concerned with the structural aspects of multi-agent actions and with strategic interdependencies between such actions.1)