Comments on: Switching viewpoints accidentally http://noncompositional.com/2005/08/switching-viewpoints-accidentally/ Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:04:39 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Russell http://noncompositional.com/2005/08/switching-viewpoints-accidentally/comment-page-1/#comment-33 Russell Tue, 23 Aug 2005 09:08:18 +0000 http://www.noncompositional.com/2005/08/switching-viewpoints-accidentally/#comment-33 <p>Hmm, that seems like a cool thought, but what do you mean by "unintended consequences"? I mean, say I'm trying to fix someone's complicated machine with lots of widgets, switches, and cogs, and accidentally push some lever (I trip and fall on it). Much to my surprise, this fixes the machine. Since there was no intention in the action, it seems hard to categorize the consequences as intended or not. That is, consequences being unintended seems to imply the existence of a particular intended (set of) consequence(s).</p> <p>I mean, certainly I intend to fix the machine, but I didn't intend to fix it -in that particular way-. Maybe you could say an accident is something that produces unpredicted consequences. Then to do something accidentally would be to do something such that [there is a result, and] the result is something not expected to have happened (given the action). Of course, this might mean that you could -try- to do something accidentally, which doesn't seem like it should happen.</p> Hmm, that seems like a cool thought, but what do you mean by “unintended consequences”? I mean, say I’m trying to fix someone’s complicated machine with lots of widgets, switches, and cogs, and accidentally push some lever (I trip and fall on it). Much to my surprise, this fixes the machine. Since there was no intention in the action, it seems hard to categorize the consequences as intended or not. That is, consequences being unintended seems to imply the existence of a particular intended (set of) consequence(s).

I mean, certainly I intend to fix the machine, but I didn’t intend to fix it -in that particular way-. Maybe you could say an accident is something that produces unpredicted consequences. Then to do something accidentally would be to do something such that [there is a result, and] the result is something not expected to have happened (given the action). Of course, this might mean that you could -try- to do something accidentally, which doesn’t seem like it should happen.

]]> By: klinton http://noncompositional.com/2005/08/switching-viewpoints-accidentally/comment-page-1/#comment-32 klinton Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:25:22 +0000 http://www.noncompositional.com/2005/08/switching-viewpoints-accidentally/#comment-32 <p>Perhaps I'm oversimplifying, but could an "accident" just be an action that produces unintended <i>consequences</i>? It seems to make more sense to talk in terms of unintended consequences instead of unintended action. This would also cover cases where the consequences aren't bad (e.g., I found $10 under my stove, quite by accident.)</p> Perhaps I’m oversimplifying, but could an “accident” just be an action that produces unintended consequences? It seems to make more sense to talk in terms of unintended consequences instead of unintended action. This would also cover cases where the consequences aren’t bad (e.g., I found $10 under my stove, quite by accident.)

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