Thanks for this. One quibble: I think it’s misleading to say actions are rated according to what they achieve. Consider dancing. What dancing achieves, first and foremost, is dancing. More generally, some features of actions may be valued or disvalued as terminal values, independent of any (non-tautological) consequences. It’s not hard to imagine patterns of behavior for which this is the most elegant explanation.
Um no. The specif sequence of muscle contractions is the action, and the thing they try to achieve is beautiful patterns of motion with certain kinds of rhythm and elegance, and/or/typically the perception of such in an observer.
Thanks for this. One quibble: I think it’s misleading to say actions are rated according to what they achieve. Consider dancing. What dancing achieves, first and foremost, is dancing. More generally, some features of actions may be valued or disvalued as terminal values, independent of any (non-tautological) consequences. It’s not hard to imagine patterns of behavior for which this is the most elegant explanation.
Um no. The specif sequence of muscle contractions is the action, and the thing they try to achieve is beautiful patterns of motion with certain kinds of rhythm and elegance, and/or/typically the perception of such in an observer.