ABSTRACT
Any taking of a propositional attitude that is not itself explained by its taker's intending to take it was described by the medieval Aristotelians as 'elicited' and not 'commanded'. The concept of belief is explanatory and causal: it is part of the web of concepts by means of which human action is explained. The causal relation between a choice and the action it explains is of the kind to which most causal theorists in the analytical tradition have devoted all their attention, namely that of the causation of event by event, also called 'occurrent' and 'transient'. They analyze agency in terms of two concepts: that of having power to choose between options presented by deliberation; and that of being such that, when what one presupposes in choosing is true, one's choosing self-referentially causes the happening of what was chosen, whether it be bodily or mental.
