Intention and the explanation of human actions

Abstract

In 'Three Ways of Spilling Ink' J.L. Austin introduces the notion of intention in this way: "As I go through life, doing, as we suppose, one thing after another, I in general always have an idea - some idea, my idea, or picture, or notion, or conception - of what I'm up to, what I'm engaged in, what I'm about, or in general 'what I'm doing' ... I must be supposed to have as it were a plan, an operation-order or something of the kind on which I'm acting, which I am seeking to put into effect, carry out in action: only of course nothing necessarily or, usually, even faintly, so full-blooded as a plan proper".