Abstract

AGUILAR, Jesús H.. The Standard Story of Action and the Problem of Agential Guidance. Crítica (Méx., D.F.) [online]. 2020, vol.52, n.155, pp.3-25.  Epub Aug 20, 2021. ISSN 0011-1503.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iifs.18704905e.2020.1192.

The problem of agential guidance consists in explaining the possibility of guiding an action in purely reductive causal terms. After examining Harry Frankfurt’s articulation of this problem, the standard systemic reductive causal answer is explored and found wanting. Two general explanatory challenges are singled out as decisive in assessing the viability of a causal answer to the problem of agential guidance: first, the correct identification of the actual sources of action guidance in the form of guiding intentions, and, second, the recognition of the limitations of a content-based strategy to identify an action under guidance.

Keywords : systemic agency; guiding intention; causal reduction; agential awareness; sustained causation.