Action, Emotion and Will

Kenny attacks previous philosophical tendencies that considered the passions primarily as objects of inspection, the presence of which we are aware by having them, and traces his argument against behaviourists who define emotions in terms of patterns of behaviour. Rejecting the view that emotions, motives and desires are private internal events, differentiated by their different feels, he argues that they are differentiated by the kinds of desires, contexts and activities that are relevant to them. Through a variety of distinctions and analyses, he sketches a theory of the will developed from Geach's account of judgement found in "Mental Acts". He searches for an account of "fully human action" where intention is central and develops an interesting and original theory of voluntary action.