Knowledgeable Action

Abstract

This chapter develops an account of a different mode of agentive excellence. This one essentially involves knowledge of action and knowledge of how to act. Here we call it knowledgeable action. The aim of this chapter is two-fold. First, to explain the special epistemic features often thought to hold of knowledge of action. Second, to explain how this knowledge plays an important role in action execution. Along the way this chapter discusses various accounts of knowledge of action, which variously emphasize roles for intention, perception, and conscious awareness. Towards the end, the chapter compares and contrast the author’s account to nearby accounts that focus, not on knowledgeable action, but on knowledge how.