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Only human agents have the relevant mental attitudes requ... — Carmelics

Statements: 321,452
Perspectives: 108,905
Topics: 42

Home/Moral Responsibility

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Only human agents have the relevant mental attitudes required for intentional action

Consciousness & Mind

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1 reason for

2 reasons against

Reasons For

1 perspective

Reason for

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1.Having intentional mental attitudes requires linguistic competence
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2.Only humans possess linguistic competence
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Reasons Against

2 perspectives

Reason against 1 of 2

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1.Anscombe and Davidson ground intentional action in the structure of reasons-responsiveness, not linguistic expression per se.
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2.A creature can be responsive to reasons and act accordingly even if it lacks the capacity to articulate those reasons in propositional language.
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3.Therefore the inference from 'requires linguistic competence' to 'only humans qualify' conflates the vehicle of thought with its functional role.
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Reason against 2 of 2

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1.Empirical studies show great apes, corvids, and cetaceans exhibit goal-directed behavior toward represented future states without language.
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2.If non-linguistic creatures can represent goals and act to achieve them, linguistic competence is not necessary for intentional mental attitudes.
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Topics

Moral Responsibility Consciousness & Mind

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Philosophy of Language2 linked

Related

A creature can be responsive to reasons and act accordingly even if it lacks the...Anscombe and Davidson ground intentional action in the structure of reasons-resp...Empirical studies show great apes, corvids, and cetaceans exhibit goal-directed ...Having intentional mental attitudes requires linguistic competence

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If non-linguistic creatures can represent goals and act to achieve them, linguis...Only humans possess linguistic competence Therefore the inference from 'requires linguistic competence' to 'only humans qu...

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The desire to act in accordance with reasons is the mental attitude fi...83%The desire to act in accordance with reasons is a mental attitude the ...82%Having intentional mental attitudes requires linguistic competence82%Behavior must be caused by an agent's beliefs and desires in order to ...79%

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We have a pervasive tendency to interpret and explain behavior in terms of intentional mental states. We tend, even, to interpret the interaction between animated objects in terms of desires, beliefs, and intentions (Heider and Simmel 1944). This raises the question of when it is appropriate to attribute mental states in the explanation of behavior. According to an instrumentalist stance (Dennett 1987: Ch. 2), the question of when it is appropriate to ascribe mental states cannot be separated fr

Extraction notes

Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 3 (1 for, 2 against)
Edits: 1 edit