[Critical-Realism] thoughts, ideas and action

[m.mcdonald.10@xxxxxxxxxx]

Hey there, I have a small query. 

I am having a bit of trouble reconciling two different things that Bhaskar has written about the relationship 
between thoughts, ideas, and action.

In The philosophy of meta-Reality Volume 1: creativity, love and freedom (Vol. 1), Bhaskar writes about 
how "the paradigm of thinking leading to action is false" (footnote 18, page 82). I think the main point of 
this argument is that at some level of determinacy action must be spontaneous and ‘unthought’, and in 
leading to this point he argues that ‘the thought of the action is not the cause of the action’. And yet in 
his article ‘On the Ontological Status of Ideas’, Bhaskar argues that ideas are real because they are 
causally efficacious (1997 p.143). 

Let me try to illustrate my point. 

I can have the thought "I will write a sentence to illustrate my point", which (from my perspective) actually
 causes me to write a sentence to illustrate my point. Of course, the actual act of typing the sentence 
may be spontaneous and unthought, but without the initial thought or idea to write it, I really don’t think I 
would have written it. In this sense, my thought or idea was causally efficacious, and yet in the 
philosophy of meta-Reality Bhaskar seems to be suggesting that thoughts do not cause action. Can you 
see what I am getting at? How do I reconcile this? 

Perhaps there is a subtle difference between what Bhaskar refers to when he speaks of ‘thoughts’ and 
the act of ‘thinking’, and what he refers to when he speaks of ‘ideas’. I seem to use the words ‘thought’ 
and ‘idea’ interchangeably, for example, "I had a thought" or "I had an idea", in this respect, my referent 
for both ‘thought’ and ‘idea’ are the same. And yet, it appears that this may be different for Bhaskar. 

Hmmm, any ideas or thoughts?

thanks,
Melanie

Melanie McDonald
PhD Candidate
School of Education
Southern Cross University
Lismore 2480 Australia
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