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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7637874" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>As I've already posted, I don't think this thread is the place for a serious discussion of philosophy of action. Rather, I'm taking Davidson as a starting point.</p><p></p><p>But if you are correct, then it follows that - in the example - four different actions have been performed. And if there were two prowlers, each alerted, then five different things would have been done. That is obviously absurd.</p><p></p><p>Hence - in the context of RPGing - the question is one of <em>deciding what descriptions of the PC's actions are true</em>. For instance, <em>who decides</em> that not only is it a true description of the action that <em>I wink at the maiden</em>, but aso that <em>I melt the maiden's heart with my wink</em>?</p><p></p><p>Not when they occur. When - to go back to Davidson's example - the room is illuminated, that's not just a desire. It's an event that occurs. And an action has been performed - <em>I illuminate the room</em>. Which is the same action as <em>I flip the light switch</em>, although under a different description. The argument that it is the same action is as above - any other view leads to metaphysical absurdity. (For instance, suppose there's a painting hanging in the room - it is now also true that <em>I make the painting visible</em>. Were that a separate action, then by changing what is in the room, and hence what true descriptions of rendering things visible can be given, I would change the number of actions performed by the light-switch-flipper. Which is absurd.)</p><p></p><p>Yes. <em>Unbeknownst to me I also alert a prowler to the fact that I am home.</em> This doesn't change the fact that these are true descriptions of a single action.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This is one possible answer to the question asked in the OP. Obviously it's not the only one.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7637874, member: 42582"] As I've already posted, I don't think this thread is the place for a serious discussion of philosophy of action. Rather, I'm taking Davidson as a starting point. But if you are correct, then it follows that - in the example - four different actions have been performed. And if there were two prowlers, each alerted, then five different things would have been done. That is obviously absurd. Hence - in the context of RPGing - the question is one of [I]deciding what descriptions of the PC's actions are true[/I]. For instance, [I]who decides[/I] that not only is it a true description of the action that [I]I wink at the maiden[/I], but aso that [I]I melt the maiden's heart with my wink[/I]? Not when they occur. When - to go back to Davidson's example - the room is illuminated, that's not just a desire. It's an event that occurs. And an action has been performed - [I]I illuminate the room[/I]. Which is the same action as [I]I flip the light switch[/I], although under a different description. The argument that it is the same action is as above - any other view leads to metaphysical absurdity. (For instance, suppose there's a painting hanging in the room - it is now also true that [I]I make the painting visible[/I]. Were that a separate action, then by changing what is in the room, and hence what true descriptions of rendering things visible can be given, I would change the number of actions performed by the light-switch-flipper. Which is absurd.) Yes. [i]Unbeknownst to me I also alert a prowler to the fact that I am home.[/i] This doesn't change the fact that these are true descriptions of a single action. This is one possible answer to the question asked in the OP. Obviously it's not the only one. [/QUOTE]
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