Uncertain actions

Abstract It is a prominent idea in the theory of action that if an action is intentional, the agent knows the reason why they’re acting. This idea gets often ascribed to G.E.M. Anscombe and is defended by her contemporary followers. In this essay, I discuss a challenge to this doctrine. Some of our intentional actions are done whilst we’re uncertain about why we’re acting. We can be genuinely agnostic about or ignorant of our reasons and yet act intentionally. I discuss various ways of resolving this challenge. I argue they all fail. This shows that we can act intentionally without knowing why we’re acting. Put differently, we can act for reasons we don’t know about.