The Will by Brian O’Shaughnessy (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 161 The Will. By BRIAN O'SHAUGHNESSY. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. Vol. I: pp. lxvi + 259; $57.50. Vol. 2: pp. xxiii + 368; $6!2.50. Recent analytical philosophers have been reluctant to talk about the will as such. Nor have they favored philosophy of mind which begins from the consciousness of subjects. Their questions have been largely about behavior and the grounds which it provides for the ascription of psychological states. Brian O'Shaughnessy's book is therefore refreshingly unusual. It is certainly analytical, but it moves 'from-within-to-without ' and is much concerned to insist on the reality of the will as " a forceladen psychological item that is altogether different from a mode of consciousness : a sui generis irreducible psychological phenomenon that is literally as old as the hills" (Vol. I, p. !xiii). William, says O'Shaughnessy, " is spirit in motion " (Vol. I, p. Ii). Now all that may sound like Cartesian Dualism; but O'Shaughnessy is certainly not defending any general and sharp dichotomy between mind and body. He is actually offering ' a dual-aspect theory' of bodily actions, according to which voluntary actions can be viewed as both physical and psychological. In O'Shaughnessy's view, all physical actions are identical with some striving or other; but this does not mean either that tryings are purely mental or that physical actions are nothing but biological events. We have, says O'Shaughnessy, " absolutely no choice but to opt for this thesis: that in some sui generis and non-stipulative sense of ' psychological ', physical actions rate as psychological " (Vol. 2, p. 137) . He therefore distinguishes between " the merely psychological and the properly mental sub-sector of the psychological "-i.e., "between the non-mental psychological and the mental psychological " (Vol. 2, p. 138) . And this distinction entails a denial of the view according to which we move voluntarily by virtue of psychological events set in an ' inner world ' which cause physical activity. According to O'Shaughnessy, neither dualistic nor materialistic theories do justice to the nature of voluntary action. We need an account which can somehow allow for both the mental and the physical elements which together constitute an action as voluntary. O'Shaughnessy's book is a long and complex thing with which it is impossible to deal adequately in the space of a book review. One can, however , stress that the quality of its argument is extremely high and that the book as a whole is very impressive. Its chief value lies, I should say, in its detailed treatment of a large range of issues relevant to its subject matter, and in its sophisticated efforts to handle these in a way that strikes a credible balance between competing views which fail to recognize both the mental and the physical nature of bodily action. Deep reflection on voluntary action calls for rigorous discussion of numerous problems, and 162 BOOK REVIEWS O'Shaughnessy shows himself keenly aware of the fact. He also shows why one should deny that voluntary actions are either wholly incorporeal or irreducibly physical. In short, then, The Will is a text to be warmly recommended. In its current form it is wildly expensive; so we must hope for a cheaper edition as soon as possible. BRIAN DAVIES, O.P. Blackfriars Oxford, England ...