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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Ryle and Grice on 'voluntarily'

Ryle:

"In their most ordinary employment “voluntary” and “involuntary” are
used, with a few minor elasticities, as adjectives applying to actions
which ought not to be done. We discuss whether someone’s action was
voluntary or not only when the action seems to have been his fault [. . . ]
But philosophers, in discussing what constitutes acts voluntary or involuntary,
tend to describe as voluntary not only reprehensible but also meritorious
actions, not only things that are someone’s fault but also things
that are to his credit [. . . ]
The tangle of largely spurious problems, known as the problem of the
Freedom of the Will, partly derives from this unconsciously stretched
use of “voluntary” [. . . ] (Ryle 1949)

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