Jennifer Hornsby
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Hornsby is a British
philosopher with interests in the philosophies of mind
, action, language
, as well as feminist philosophy
. She is currently a professor at the School of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London
. She is well-known for her opposition to orthodoxy in current analytic philosophy of mind, and for her use of J. L. Austin
's Speech Act
Theory to look at the effects of pornography.
under the direction of Bernard Williams
. She also earned a B.A.
and M.Phil.
from Oxford and London, respectively. She taught at the University of Oxford for 17 years before moving to Birkbeck College, London
. She was president of the Aristotelian Society
from 1996 to 1997. She is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
.
, action, language
, and feminist philosophy
.
. In her book Actions (1980), she argues that actions are events occurring beneath the surface of the skin. The argument for this turns on an ambiguity in the slogan "all actions are bodily movements". The ambiguity stems from the fact that 'move' is one of a class of verbs that can occur either transitively or intransitively. Nominal expressions containing such verbs are therefore ambiguous: for example, 'the movement of the flag' can refer either to the action of someone's moving the flag or to the resultant movement of the flag. As we only ever answer a question about what someone did by using transitive verbs --- e.g. 'Jack moved his arm', not 'Jack's arm moved' (unless the latter is taken to imply that the former is true) --- the slogan "all actions are bodily movements" is only true if 'movement' is read transitively. This ambiguity noted, Hornsby then points out that if A VT-s B, then A caused B to VI ('T' and 'I' serving to disintguish between transitive and intransitive uses of the relevant verbs). If Jack raisedT the flag, Jack caused the flag to riseI. As causes and effects must be distinct, we must therefore also distinguish between Jack's raisingT his arm from Jack's arm's risingI, the former causing the latter. So actions are bodily movementsT, which cause bodily movementsI. The final move is to claim that we know from physiology that the causes of bodily movementsI are events that occur beneath the surface of the skin. Therefore, actions occur beneath the surface of the skin.
This claim is combined with another: that the most basic description, in the causal sense of 'basic', of an action is as a trying. This arises from accepting a coarse-grained account of the individuation of events, according to which events are particulars that can be described in many different ways. The descriptions are distinguished by the effects of the described event in terms of which they are picked out. For example, the event of my slamming the door may be identical to the event of my waking the cat. The first description picks out the event by reference to the event of the door's being slammed. The second description picks out the event by reference to the event of the cat's waking. The question then is, Is there a description of the events which are actions that picks them out without reference to any effects? Hornsby's answer is that we can describe actions as tryings. I can try to raise my arm and, if successful, my arm will rise. (Note, though, that not all tryings are actions, only the successful ones.)
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
philosopher with interests in the philosophies of mind
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
, action, language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
, as well as feminist philosophy
Feminist philosophy
Feminist philosophy refers to philosophy approached from a feminist perspective. Feminist philosophy involves both attempts to use the methods of philosophy to further the cause of the feminist movements, and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a...
. She is currently a professor at the School of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. She is well-known for her opposition to orthodoxy in current analytic philosophy of mind, and for her use of J. L. Austin
J. L. Austin
John Langshaw Austin was a British philosopher of language, born in Lancaster and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford University. Austin is widely associated with the concept of the speech act and the idea that speech is itself a form of action...
's Speech Act
Speech act
Speech Act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of language. The contemporary use of the term goes back to John L. Austin's doctrine of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts...
Theory to look at the effects of pornography.
Biography
Jennifer Hornsby earned her Ph.D. from the University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
under the direction of Bernard Williams
Bernard Williams
Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams was an English moral philosopher, described by The Times as the most brilliant and most important British moral philosopher of his time. His publications include Problems of the Self , Moral Luck , Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy , and Truth and Truthfulness...
. She also earned a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
and M.Phil.
Master of Philosophy
The Master of Philosophy is a postgraduate research degree.An M.Phil. is a lesser degree than a Doctor of Philosophy , but in many cases it is considered to be a more senior degree than a taught Master's degree, as it is often a thesis-only degree. In some instances, an M.Phil...
from Oxford and London, respectively. She taught at the University of Oxford for 17 years before moving to Birkbeck College, London
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
. She was president of the Aristotelian Society
Aristotelian Society
The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Square which resolved "to constitute a society of about twenty and to include ladies; the society to meet fortnightly, on Mondays at 8 o'clock, at the rooms of the Spelling...
from 1996 to 1997. She is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...
.
Work
Hornsby's work focuses primarily on the philosophies of mindPhilosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
, action, language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
, and feminist philosophy
Feminist philosophy
Feminist philosophy refers to philosophy approached from a feminist perspective. Feminist philosophy involves both attempts to use the methods of philosophy to further the cause of the feminist movements, and attempts to criticise or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a...
.
Actions
Hornsby's action theory is significantly influenced by the philosophy of Donald DavidsonDonald Davidson (philosopher)
Donald Herbert Davidson was an American philosopher born in Springfield, Massachusetts, who served as Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley from 1981 to 2003 after having also held teaching appointments at Stanford University, Rockefeller University, Princeton...
. In her book Actions (1980), she argues that actions are events occurring beneath the surface of the skin. The argument for this turns on an ambiguity in the slogan "all actions are bodily movements". The ambiguity stems from the fact that 'move' is one of a class of verbs that can occur either transitively or intransitively. Nominal expressions containing such verbs are therefore ambiguous: for example, 'the movement of the flag' can refer either to the action of someone's moving the flag or to the resultant movement of the flag. As we only ever answer a question about what someone did by using transitive verbs --- e.g. 'Jack moved his arm', not 'Jack's arm moved' (unless the latter is taken to imply that the former is true) --- the slogan "all actions are bodily movements" is only true if 'movement' is read transitively. This ambiguity noted, Hornsby then points out that if A VT-s B, then A caused B to VI ('T' and 'I' serving to disintguish between transitive and intransitive uses of the relevant verbs). If Jack raisedT the flag, Jack caused the flag to riseI. As causes and effects must be distinct, we must therefore also distinguish between Jack's raisingT his arm from Jack's arm's risingI, the former causing the latter. So actions are bodily movementsT, which cause bodily movementsI. The final move is to claim that we know from physiology that the causes of bodily movementsI are events that occur beneath the surface of the skin. Therefore, actions occur beneath the surface of the skin.
This claim is combined with another: that the most basic description, in the causal sense of 'basic', of an action is as a trying. This arises from accepting a coarse-grained account of the individuation of events, according to which events are particulars that can be described in many different ways. The descriptions are distinguished by the effects of the described event in terms of which they are picked out. For example, the event of my slamming the door may be identical to the event of my waking the cat. The first description picks out the event by reference to the event of the door's being slammed. The second description picks out the event by reference to the event of the cat's waking. The question then is, Is there a description of the events which are actions that picks them out without reference to any effects? Hornsby's answer is that we can describe actions as tryings. I can try to raise my arm and, if successful, my arm will rise. (Note, though, that not all tryings are actions, only the successful ones.)
Books
- Actions (1980), Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
- Simple Mindedness: A Defence of Naïve Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mind (1997), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Edited Collections
- Ethics: A Feminist Reader (with Elizabeth Frazer and Sabina Lovibond) (1992)
- The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy (with Miranda Fricker) (2000)
- Reading Philosophy: Selected Texts with a Method for Beginners (with Samuel Guttenplan and Christopher Janaway), (2002)
- Reading Philosophy of Language: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (with Guy Longworth) (2005)
Mind and action
- "Anomalousness in Action," in The Philosophy of Donald Davidson, ed. Lewis E. Hahn (Library of Living Philosophers, Open Court, Chicago IL, 1999), 623–36.
- "Personal and Sub-Personal: A Defence of Dennett’s Original Distinction," in New Essays on Psychological Explanation, eds. M. Elton & J. Bermudez, (Special Issue of Philosophical Explorations) 2000, 6–24.
- "Agency and Actions," in Agency and Action, eds. H. Steward and J. Hyman (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 1–23.
- "Alienated Agents," in Naturalism in Question, eds. M. De Caro and D. Macarthur (Harvard University Press, 2004), 173–87.
Language and feminism
- "Speech Acts and Pornography," Women’s Philosophy Review, 1993. Reprinted in The Problem of Pornography, ed. Susan Dwyer (Wadsworth, 1995) 220–32.
- "Illocution and its Significance," in Foundations of Speech Act Theory: Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, ed. S.L.Tsohatzidis (Routledge) 1994, 187–207.
- "Disempowered Speech," in Feminist Perspectives on Language, Knowledge and Reality (Philosophical Topics 23.2) ed. S. Haslanger (University of Arkansas Press, 1995) 127–47.
- "Free Speech and Illocution," (with Rae Langton) Legal Theory 4 (1998): 21–37.
- "Feminism in Philosophy of Language: Communicative Speech Acts," in The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, eds. M. Fricker and J. Hornsby (Cambridge University Press, 2000) 87–106.
- "How to Think About Derogatory Words," in Figurative Language (Midwest Studies in Philosophy, XXV), eds. P. French & H. Wettstein (Blackwell Publishers, 2001) 128–41.
- "Free Speech and Hate Speech: Language and Rights," in Normativity, Facts, and Values, eds. R. Egidi, M. Dell’Utri, and M. De Caro (Quodlibet, Macerata, 2003) 297–310.
Truth and metaphysics
- "Truth: The Identity Theory," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 97 (1997) 1–24. Reprinted in Truth, ed. Michael Lynch (MIT Press, 2001) 663–81.
- "Dealing with Facts," in a Symposium on Stephen Neale’s Facing Facts, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (forthcoming 2005).
- "Physicalism, Conceptual Analysis, and Acts of Faith," in Minds, Worlds & Conditionals: Essays in Honour of Frank Jackson, ed. I. Ravenscroft (Oxford University Press, forthcoming [2005]).
- "Truth without Truthmaking Entities," in Truthmakers, eds. H. Beebee and J. Dodd (Oxford University Press,