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Negative actions, like intentional omissions or refrainments, seem to be genuine actions. The standard metaphysical theories of action are event-based: they treat actions as events of a special kind. However, it seems that many (and perhaps all) negative actions are not events, but absences thereof.
The roots of this problem lie at the intersection of metaphysics, philosophy of action and philosophy of language. Based on the analysis of the latest literature, Payton compares opposing positions on the issue of the ontology of negative actions with opposing positions on the problem of the semantics of proposals for negative actions and develops his own ontological and semantic theory aimed at revealing the nature of negative actions, clarifying how we think and talk about them, and determining their place in the theory of action. How far Payton's theory achieves these goals is discussed in our workshop. The details of the author's arguments are presented by Artyom Besedin, and Artyom Yashin critically analyzes them. Next goes the discussion.
The participants of the discussion: Evgeny Loginov, Andrey Mertsalov, Anna Kostikova, Vadim Vasilyev.
