Abstract
The first third of John Pollock’s Thinking about Acting is on the topics of pleasure, desire, and preference, and these topics are the ones on which this paper focuses. I review Pollock’s position and argue that it has at least one substantial strength (it elegantly demonstrates that desires must be more fundamental than preferences, and embraces this conclusion wholeheartedly) and at least one substantial weakness (it holds to a form of psychological hedonism without convincingly answering the philosophical or empirical objections that might be raised).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Davidson, D. (1980). Essays on actions and events. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davis, W. (1982). A causal theory of enjoyment. Mind, 91, 240–256.
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state and utopia. New York: Basic Books.
Pollock, J. (2006). Thinking about acting: Logical foundations for rational decision making. New York: Oxford University Press.
Schroeder, T. (2004). Three faces of desire. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schroeder, T. Desire and pleasure in John Pollock’s Thinking about Acting . Philos Stud 148, 447–454 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-009-9491-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-009-9491-6