Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency

Faces of Intention collects Michael Bratman's influential essays on human agency, planning, and intentional action. The book brings together work spanning over a decade, presenting Bratman's planning theory of intention and its implications for understanding rational agency. The essays examine core questions about the nature of human action, decision-making, and practical reasoning. Bratman develops his view that intentions are distinct from desires and beliefs, serving as building blocks for complex forms of agency and coordination over time. The text explores how intentions connect to rationality, commitment, and shared cooperative activities between agents. Through detailed philosophical analysis, Bratman addresses issues of stability and flexibility in planning, the relationship between intention and motivation, and the foundations of social interaction. This collection represents a major contribution to action theory and the philosophy of mind, offering a framework for understanding how human beings function as planning agents who shape their lives through intentions and commitments.

Readers note this book provides a clear explanation of Bratman's planning theory of intention and practical reasoning. Philosophy students and scholars appreciate the systematic development of ideas across the collected essays. Liked: - Detailed examples that illustrate abstract concepts - Builds coherent framework for understanding human agency - Clear writing compared to similar philosophical texts - Useful for both introductory and advanced study Disliked: - Some repetition between chapters - Technical language can be dense for non-specialists - Limited engagement with competing theories - High price point for a short book Available Ratings: Goodreads: 4.0/5 (12 ratings) Amazon: 4.5/5 (3 ratings) Google Books: No ratings One philosophy graduate student reviewer noted: "Bratman methodically develops his planning theory. While dense at times, the examples help ground the theoretical discussions." Another mentioned "this collection brings together key papers that show how his ideas evolved."

Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason by Michael Bratman This foundational text explores the nature of human planning, practical reasoning, and the relationship between intention and action through a philosophical framework.

Rationality in Action by John Searle The text examines human rationality, decision-making processes, and the gap between intentions and actions through analyses of consciousness and free will.

The Possibility of Practical Reason by David Velleman This work investigates practical reasoning, motivation, and agency through perspectives on self-knowledge and intentional action.

Practical Intelligence and the Virtues by Daniel Russell The book connects practical reasoning with virtue ethics and examines how rational agents develop and execute plans through moral decision-making frameworks.

Self-Knowledge and Resentment by Akeel Bilgrami The text presents theories about agency, intentionality, and self-knowledge through connections between mental states and behavioral dispositions.

🔸 Michael Bratman developed the influential "planning theory of intention," which revolutionized how philosophers think about human decision-making and practical reasoning. 🔸 The book was published by Cambridge University Press in 1999 and brings together Bratman's most significant essays from over a decade of research on intention and agency. 🔸 Bratman's work on shared intention and collective agency has been widely applied beyond philosophy to fields including artificial intelligence, robotics, and organizational behavior. 🔸 The author's theories challenged the dominant belief-desire model of action by emphasizing the crucial role of future-directed planning in human rationality. 🔸 Many of the essays in this collection originated from Bratman's time at Stanford University, where he has been a professor since 1974 and helped establish one of the world's leading centers for research in practical reasoning.