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Michael Dummett, Reasons to Act, and Bringing About the Past

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Abstract

My intention in this paper is to outline and criticise some of the main ideas in Michael Dummett’s classic article “Bringing about the Past”. From Dummett’s remarks we can (I think) reconstruct two sceptical arguments designed to show that it can never be rational to attempt to bring about past events. Dummett is critical of both arguments. Though happy with Dummett’s reply to the first sceptical argument, I disagree with his reply to the second.

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Notes

  1. I assume throughout that the chief only dances in order to influence the men’s behaviour (e.g., he is not a “fitness fanatic”) and that the chief’s desire is to bring it about that the men fought bravely (as opposed to the egocentric desire to bring it about that he (the chief) caused the men to fight bravely).

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to a referee for this journal, and to Daniel Stoljar, for useful feedback.

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  1. School of Philosophy, RSSS, ANU, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

    Brian Garrett

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  1. Brian Garrett
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Correspondence to Brian Garrett.

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Garrett, B. Michael Dummett, Reasons to Act, and Bringing About the Past. Philosophia 48, 547–556 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00131-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00131-2

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