What does it mean to act well according to Elizabeth Anscombe? Human action and practical truth
Aucouturier, Valérie
What does it mean to act well according to Elizabeth Anscombe? Human action and practical truth - 2024.
12
“Practical truth,” according to Anscombe, does not merely refer to the capacity of intentional agents to act but to their capacity to act well. As Aristotle put it, it is “truth in accordance with right desire.” Anscombe specifies the point: “Practical truth is the truth brought about in sound deliberation leading to decision and action, and this includes the truth of the description ‘doing well’.” The aim of this paper is to understand the ethical significance of this concept which does not merely address the deliberative structure of intentional action, but the issue of what is a good action, and more precisely what is a good human action: “Practical truth is truth created by action in a sense in which neither branches nor dogs nor children are capable of action.”
What does it mean to act well according to Elizabeth Anscombe? Human action and practical truth - 2024.
12
“Practical truth,” according to Anscombe, does not merely refer to the capacity of intentional agents to act but to their capacity to act well. As Aristotle put it, it is “truth in accordance with right desire.” Anscombe specifies the point: “Practical truth is the truth brought about in sound deliberation leading to decision and action, and this includes the truth of the description ‘doing well’.” The aim of this paper is to understand the ethical significance of this concept which does not merely address the deliberative structure of intentional action, but the issue of what is a good action, and more precisely what is a good human action: “Practical truth is truth created by action in a sense in which neither branches nor dogs nor children are capable of action.”
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