Trying

The notion of trying is vital to any theory of action. You could hardly analyse much of what people do without mentioning their efforts, successful and unsuccessful. A man's desires and decisions find expression in his attempts. What you are trying to do is also a prime example of what you know without benefit of evidence and observation. It might seem that little attention has been devoted to this central concept because it is philosophically trouble-free. Isn't trying simply exerting yourself—mentally or physically—as a means of bringing about some result you want? And just as you can think of anything under the sun, can't you try to do anything at all? These and similar natural views of trying call forth a swarm of minor, but challenging problems. To begin with, there are at least three relevant species of trying besides the pre-eminent cause-effect or meansends type. I won't take time to belabor the suggestion that trying is merely bracing yourself inwardly, while manifesting your subcutaneous capers through your behavior. But this quaint hypothesis does raise problems. Is trying just doing something? To what extent is it constituted by the agent's intentions and beliefs? As for what a person can try to do, a random survey indicates that there are unsuspected limits. It sounds absurd to describe a person as attempting to choke, to misplace something, to feel pain, to get annoyed or discouraged

Action (physics) · Epistemology · Natural (archaeology) · Free Will and Agency · History · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Trying without fail

  Open Access•Ben Holguín, Harvey Lederman•Philosophical Studies•2024

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