The papers in this Symposium emerged from a one-day workshop held by the University of Southern California Law School on Gideon Yaffe’s Attempts in the Philosophy of Action and the Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). We are grateful to the USC Law School for arranging and hosting the event, to all who took part in the lively discussions, and of course to Gideon Yaffe himself for writing such an impressive and provocative book, for his constructive and good humoured participation in the workshop, and for writing a reply to the four critical papers that follow.