Choosing What To Think

• This paper produces a clear interpretation of Galen Strawson’s argument that thought is passive, eventually showing how it fails to consider a relevant distinction. Though many philosophers of mental action have produced accounts of thought as active, Strawson’s argument has not yet been dealt with in the literature.  Just like an agent can move their arm, it is thought that an agent also has the ability to move their mind. On analogy with bodily actions, thinking, judging, and imagining could be considered mental actions. However, Strawson argues that what parts of our mental life we have control over are severely limited. One of his arguments focuses on thought; if thought is active, we would be led to an infinite regress of intentional states. However, I show that if we make the distinction between the immediate and reflective senses of concepts, the regress need not occur.