ABSTRACT
Hume's empiricism also brings with it a greater focus on and a reinterpretation of causation, which has had a profound effect on contemporary action theorists. A particularly striking example of surprising evidence that shook up contemporary action theory comes from Libet's experiments in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Building on Wilhelm Wundt's methodology from the 1880s, Libet asked his subjects simply to move a finger or press a button at will and take note of the moment when they feel “the desire or urge”. One particularly interesting issue currently being explored, which tackles both the bodily-mental divide and the personal-subpersonal divide, is to consider what it means for us and our actions to be embodied, that is, what it means for us to act with our bodies and feel ownership. The distinction between agency and our sense of agency and emergence of the interface challenge between the personal and subpersonal levels have invigorated a crucial area of interdisciplinary inquiry.
