ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the way in which the psychoanalytic idea of an object relations theory can help us understand an area of great philosophical difficulty, the notion of will. I will argue that ‘will’ is a semantic concept, that is, it is a concept which helps us to understand other concepts (like ‘action’ and ‘intention’) which are essential to our self-understanding. I will show how object relations theory can be used to explain a fundamental problem in the philosophy of action: the need to provide an account of how the representations we consciously and unconsciously entertain are related to the way we act.
