Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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143339

Is thinking an action?

David Hunter

pp. 133-148

Abstract

I argue that entertaining a proposition is not an action. Such events do not have intentional explanations and cannot be evaluated as rational or not. In these respects they contrast with assertions and compare well with perceptual events. One can control what one thinks by doing something, most familiarly by reciting a sentence. But even then the event of entertaining the proposition is not an action, though it is an event one has caused to happen, much as one might cause oneself to see a book by looking at it. I also discuss how this may support the view that thinking about the world is a source of information about it.

Publication details

Published in:

(2003) Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 2 (2).

Pages: 133-148

DOI: 10.1023/A:1024883526865

Full citation:

Hunter David (2003) „Is thinking an action?“. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 2 (2), 133–148.