The property of goal‐directedness: Lessons from the dispositions debate

Tugby, Matthew

Abstract

The system‐property or ‘cybernetic’ theory of goals and goal‐directedness became popular in the twentieth century. It is a theory that has reductionist and behaviourist roots. There are reasons to think that the system‐property theory needs to be formulated in terms of counterfactuals. However, it proves to be difficult to formulate a counterfactual analysis of goal‐directedness that is counterexample‐free, non‐circular, and non‐trivial. These difficulties closely mirror those facing reductionists about dispositions, though the parallels between the two debates have been overlooked in the literature. After outlining those parallels, the paper considers what goal theorists might learn from the dispositions debate. In particular, the paper discusses the need for a realist, non‐reductionist account of goal‐directedness, and explores the idea that properties of goal‐directedness are themselves dispositions or ‘powers’ of a certain sort.

Citation

Tugby, M. (online). The property of goal‐directedness: Lessons from the dispositions debate. Ratio: An international journal of analytic philosophy, https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12417

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 13, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 24, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 24, 2024
• Journal: Ratio: An international journal of analytic philosophy
• Print ISSN: 0034-0006
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9329
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12417
• Keywords: counterfactuals, dispositions, reduction, goal‐directedness, powers, goals
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2603581