Summary |
Plausibly, trying is an essential component of agency. But what
is trying? Philosophers of action differ on trying’s nature and its relation to
agency more broadly (e.g., its relationship to the will, to intentional action,
and more): nothing like a consensus view on trying exists. Some view trying as
a special act of the will; others that trying is simply a functional component
of action – trying is identical to the effects of an intentions’s normal causal
work. In the 20th Century trying generated some conceptual puzzles
for philosophers of action: so, one finds discussion of questions about whether
an agent can intend to try, whether an agent can desire to try to A without
desiring to A, and whether an agent can try to do what she believes to be
impossible. More recently, some have focused on the psychology of trying –
including the experience of trying to do things – and have thus connected
trying to the growing literature on the phenomenology of agency. |