ABSTRACT
This paper presents an account of intending, explains how intending so conceived is related to intentional action, and connects both with desire, which is construed as a kind of wanting. Intrinsic and extrinsic wants are distinguished, but without positing two senses of “want.” It is argued that intending entails wanting, and that the concept of wanting is implicit in that of intentional action. The issue of whether intending, too, must figure in intentional action is also explored. The paper questions this view and provides alternative explanations of some of the data that support it. In examining all these issues, the paper shows how the position it defends, which takes wanting rather than intending as the most basic motivational notion in commonsense psychology, can approach a number of major questions in action theory.
