First edition, first impression, of one of the classics of twentieth-century philosophy, by Wittgenstein’s star pupil and literary executor, Elizabeth Anscombe. Donald Davidson called this book “the most important treatment of action since Aristotle”. “What Anscombe has done is to cut through a whole mess of philosophical clichés, and to give us a fresh, detailed picture of the concept of an action, and of related notions such as that of a reason for acting – and this in a way which brings out clearly the sources of a host of philosophical muddles in which one can find oneself in dealing with these concepts. To have done that is to have made a significant contribution to philosophy” (Judith Jarvis Thomson, Journal of Philosophy). “Anscombe’s classic work is the font from which all subsequent philosophical thought about agency flows” (Robert B. Brandom).
