eprintid: 1456765
rev_number: 33
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/01/45/67/65
datestamp: 2014-11-27 12:02:01
lastmod: 2020-02-20 03:56:24
status_changed: 2014-11-27 12:02:01
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
item_issues_count: 0
creators_name: Hinshelwood, A
title: WINNER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLORATIONS ESSAY PRIZE 2013: The relations between agency, identification, and alienation
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: A01
divisions: B03
divisions: C01
divisions: F16
note: © 2013 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis

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abstract: This paper examines the relations between, on the one hand, accounts of the distinction between an agent's identifying with, as opposed to feeling alienated from, their attitudes; and on the other, metaphysical accounts of action. It claims that a commitment to an event-causal conception of agency, which would analyse agency in terms of the causal potency of psychological states and events, appears to render mandatory a particular style of account of identification and alienation – namely, the hierarchical model offered by Harry Frankfurt and Michael Bratman. It is argued that such accounts fall foul of a dilemma: the Authority Problem. The failure of attempts to avoid the Authority Problem is then used to motivate an attractive alternative style of account of the distinction, offered by Richard Moran. However, it is pressed that Moran's account rests on claims about agency which seem incompatible with the event-causal conception of agency. By making the links between the metaphysics of agency and accounts of identification and alienation more explicit, the paper allows us to better comprehend both the apparent need for and characteristic failures of some traditional accounts of identification and alienation, as well as make clear the action-theoretical debt incurred by those who would offer an alternative.
date: 2013-09
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2013.815260
vfaculties: VARTS
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_source: crossref
elements_id: 995843
doi: 10.1080/13869795.2013.815260
language_elements: aa
lyricists_name: Hinshelwood, Alec
lyricists_id: AJHIN72
full_text_status: public
publication: Philosophical Explorations
volume: 16
number: 3
pagerange: 243 - 258
issn: 1386-9795
citation:        Hinshelwood, A;      (2013)    WINNER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLORATIONS ESSAY PRIZE 2013: The relations between agency, identification, and alienation.                   Philosophical Explorations , 16  (3)   243 - 258.    10.1080/13869795.2013.815260 <https://doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2013.815260>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1456765/1/13869795%252E2013%252E815260.pdf