Monday, March 11, 2013

Some conjectures on intention, success and trying

Here are some conjectures:

  1. x As out of a proximate intention to A if and only if x succeeds at trying to A.
  2. x proximately intends to A if and only if x tries to A.
  3. x proximately intends that s if and only if x proximately intends to bring it about that s.
  4. x distantly intends to A if and only if x tries to bring it about that she* [quasi-indicator] As
  5. x distantly intends that s if and only if x distantly intends to bring it about that s.
Proximate intentions are the intentions that normally directly result in action, as distinguished from distant intentions which are plans for future action that still require a proximate intention before the action. I am rather less confident of the theses on distant intention than those on proximate intention. But even the theses on proximate intention only have something like the following epistemic status: "They sound right and I can't think of a counterexample."

If (2) is right, then the intention condition in the Principle of Double Effect can be reformulated as saying that the agent isn't trying to bring about an evil. And indeed the following sounds exactly right to me:

  1. You are never permitted to try to bring about an evil.
Of course, there are some difficult de re / de dicto issues in regard to (6).

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