Velleman (1992), Mind 101(403):461–481 (1992); read as reprinted in The Possibility of Practical Reason, 2nd ed. (Maize Books/Michigan Publishing, 2015; CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US; doi:10.3998/maize.13240734.0001.001), ch. 5, pp. 100–123 — DOI-10.1093/mind/101.403.461
Standing in the record
Filed on 2026-09-29 at the owner’s request, as one of the texts assembled to represent Harry Frankfurt’s
account of higher-order volitions, whose 1971 statement is paywalled. published: is the first appearance
(ADR-002).
It was filed Deferred, unread. NOTE-265 is the close reading of 2026-09-29, and it placed the work: Active — worth reading as the canonical statement of the “disappearing agent” objection to the causal theory of action and as the sharpest short critique of Frankfurt’s hierarchy as a reduction of agent-causation. Its positive proposal is a sketch whose content Velleman revises in the same book: he later says the motive is not a de dicto desire for reasons, and relabels “full-blooded action” as action vs. activity.