Q0527

“What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those which are not? The…” — Elizabeth Anscombe (Intention (1957), §4)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Intention (1957), §4. Theme: action.

English

What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those which are not? The answer that I shall suggest is that they are the actions to which a certain sense of the question "Why?" is given application.
Thinker Elizabeth Anscombe
School Analytic Philosophy
Source Intention (1957), §4
Theme Action
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Intention (1957), §4 and files it under Analytic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Elizabeth Anscombe

G. E.

How to read this passage

Philosophy of action asks how intentions, reasons, habits, and consequences hang together. Ethical traditions often insist that knowing the good is incomplete without doing it. This passage enters that discussion through action, reason.

Concepts in this quote

Action
Action concerns agency: what it is to do something intentionally, and how thought becomes practice.
Reason
Reason is the capacity to give and assess reasons—central to logic, science, ethics, and public argument.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Elizabeth Anscombe. (n.d.). What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those which are not? The answer that I shall suggest is that they are the actions to which a certain sense of the question "Why?" is given application. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0527

MLA: Elizabeth Anscombe. “What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0527.

Chicago: Elizabeth Anscombe. “What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0527.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those…”?

The passage is attributed to Elizabeth Anscombe, Intention (1957), §4. The archive attributes this English wording to Intention (1957), §4 and files it under Analytic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Elizabeth Anscombe mean by action?

Philosophy of action asks how intentions, reasons, habits, and consequences hang together. Ethical traditions often insist that knowing the good is incomplete without doing it. This passage enters that discussion through action, reason.

Same thinker

More from Elizabeth Anscombe

  1. The concepts of obligation, and duty—moral obligation and moral duty, that is to say—and of what is morally right and wrong, and of the moral sense of "ought," ought to be jettisoned if this is psychologically possible.
  2. It would be a great improvement if, instead of "morally wrong," one always named a genus such as "untruthful," "unchaste," "unjust."
  3. Intentional action is action with a certain description under which it is intentional.
  4. The greater part of modern moral philosophy derives from Sidgwick and is utilitarian or consequentialist.

All quotations by Elizabeth Anscombe

Same theme

More on action

  1. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  2. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
  3. If you wish to be loved, love.
  4. We must cultivate our garden.
  5. Men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world.

Browse the action theme