{"id":2241,"date":"2021-11-11T10:39:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T18:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/?p=2241"},"modified":"2023-08-28T09:56:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T16:56:27","slug":"how-the-agency-and-intentions-in-language-conference-will-expand-your-thinking-by-kyle-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/hsa\/2021\/11\/11\/how-the-agency-and-intentions-in-language-conference-will-expand-your-thinking-by-kyle-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHow the \u2018Agency and Intentions in Language\u2019 Conference Will Expand Your Thinking,\u201d by Kyle Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagine that the CEO of a company learns that implementing a new policy will harm the environment and also make the company lots of money. The CEO then says: \u201cImplement the policy\u2014I don\u2019t care about the environment, I just want to make money.\u201d Did the CEO intentionally harm the environment? Most people would say \u201cyes.\u201d But now consider a slightly different scenario. This time, the CEO learns that a new policy will help<\/em> the environment and also make the company lots of money. Again, the CEO proclaims: \u201cImplement the policy\u2014I don\u2019t care about the environment, I just want to make money.\u201d Did the CEO intentionally help the environment? Now most people would say \u201cno.\u201d But wait\u2014why should we say that one act was done intentionally and not the other when the CEO\u2019s actions were the same in both scenarios?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puzzles like this one, derived from philosopher Joshua Knobe\u2019s (2003) work*, point to interesting and challenging questions about concepts people use every day of their lives, concepts such as \u201cintention,\u201d \u201cresponsibility,\u201d \u201cagency\u201d and more. For example, we often ask others to take responsibility<\/em> for what they\u2019ve done; we might apologize for wrongdoing by downplaying the consequences of our actions and emphasizing our good intentions;<\/em> we defend a desire for agency<\/em> when we ask not to be micromanaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the surface, we all have a sense of what these concepts mean and yet, as Knobe\u2019s puzzle reveals, there can be so much complexity underneath them. If the CEO is held more responsible when the by-products of her actions are harmful rather than helpful, then it seems that the common concept of \u201cintention\u201d is more than just \u2018that which someone aims to do.\u2019 In fact, the idea of acting \u201cintentionally\u201d has a lot to do with a person\u2019s sense of agency\u2014i.e., their sense of being able to freely carry out actions\u2014coupled with their responsibility to other people in their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explore questions related to agency and intentions, Harvey Mudd College will be hosting (virtually) the second annual \u201cAgency and Intentions in Language\u201d (AIL) workshop. What makes this academic conference so exciting is that it is interdisciplinary and international. The inaugural conference, hosted (virtually) at the University of G\u00f6ttingen, brought together philosophers and linguists from around the world to share their perspectives on, well, you guessed it: agency, intentional actions, accidental actions, responsibility and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you might not have guessed is how many fascinating questions link up with these concepts. For example, philosophers connect agency and intentions with questions of free will and moral responsibility. If a scientific worldview regards all events as fully caused by prior events, then how can we even make sense of a person acting intentionally or accidentally? It had to happen that the CEO would implement the policy, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relatedly, psychologists explore how humans develop their sense of agency, and they seek to understand how a person\u2019s sense of agency might be different in cases of schizophrenia or addiction. And the linguists have perhaps the hardest job of all: making sense of how all these questions and concepts are captured and managed in diverse languages and linguistic communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an attendee and presenter for the inaugural workshop, I found it exhilarating to learn how folks outside of philosophy, my discipline, tackle the same questions I am interested in. As each speaker presented, I realized that I had totally underestimated the intrigue and complexity behind the very ideas I had spent so much time investigating in my own work. This shouldn\u2019t have been surprising, though, as I wrote an entire dissertation (Thompson, 2019) on the relationship between the concepts \u201cought\u201d and \u201ccan\u201d and still<\/em> had more I wanted to say!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To build on the success of the first \u201cAgency and Intentions in Language,\u201d this upcoming conference will feature an all-star, interdisciplinary cast of invited speakers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n