Goals, No-Goals and Own Goals: A Debate on Goal Directed and Intentional Behaviour

There is an urgent need to assess the impact of studies in neuroscience and animal behaviour on how we are to think about ourselves. In this book three scientists and three philosophers offer a response to this need by engaging in a stimulating debate that transcends the usual boundaries between scientific and philosophical enquiry. Originating from university seminars held in Oxford over many years, each author takes a highly developed position; the scientists argue with each other quite as much as with the philosophers, and vice versa. The result is a very unusual debate which is equally accessible to philosophers and scientists. The central theme is the significance and nature of goal-directed and intentional behaviour. At one extreme, David McFarland, Reader in Animal Behaviour at the University of Oxford, brings into radical question the need for either of these concepts, at least in the scientific study of animal behaviour. At the other extreme, the Oxford philosopher, Alan Montefiore, argues that such concepts are indispensable to any explication of the meaningful use of language and that we must therefore acknowledge their importance in understanding the nature of human behaviour. Athlete After Athlete In This Book Found Discipline, Hope, And Inspiration On The Playing Field, Rising Above Their Circumstances. Filled With First-hand Accounts From Stars Who Exemplify The Idea Of Enduring At All Costs, Rising Above Will Serve As A Must-read Source Of Inspiration For Kids And Sports Fans Of All Ages General Introduction / Alan Montefiore And Denis Noble -- Philosophical Background / Alan Montefiore -- Scientific Introduction / Denis Noble -- Goals, No-goals, And Own Goals / David Mcfarland -- Intentions And Causes / Alan Montefiore -- Intentional Action And Physiology / Denis Noble -- Cognitive Ethology : Hunting For Bargains Or A Wild Goose Chase? / Daniel C. Dennett -- Representations, Functionalism, And Simple Living Systems / Shawn Lockery -- Representation And Explanation / Kathy Wilkes -- Narrow Intentions / Shawn Lockery -- Explanation : How Not To Miss The Point / Kathy Wilkes -- The Teleological Imperative / David Mcfarland. Comments / Daniel C. Dennett -- Round Two / Alan Montefiore -- What Do Intentions Do? / Dennis Noble -- Swan Song Of A Phoenix / David Mcfarland. Edited By Alan Montefiore & Denis Noble. Includes Bibliographical References. This volume, which includes essays by scientists and philosophers, is intended to provide an interdisciplinary approach to some of the many intertangled problems connected with the identification, characterization, understanding and explanation of goal-directed and intentional behaviour.