Toxic intentions

ABSTRACT

Pure voluntarism is the claim that we have the same voluntary control over intentions as we do decisions. The Toxin Puzzle is often taken to challenge pure voluntarism by supporting a reasons constraint on intentions. According to this constraint, one cannot voluntarily intend to do something that one lacks a practical reason to do. We present the results of three experiments stemming from this puzzle demonstrating that the concept does not support a reasons constraint and suggests that intentions are regarded as voluntary to the same degree that decisions are.

KEYWORDS:

• Intention
• voluntarism
• reasons
• decision
• belief

Acknowledgments

For helpful feedback, we thank Carolyn Buckwalter, Al Mele, David Rose, and Angelo Turri. This research was supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.