Abstract
One can intend the actions of others, even when one believes such actions are not
under one’s control. Call the objects of intentions “ends”; the ends that consist (partly
or wholly) of other people’s actions “social”; and the ends that consist of things one
believes one cannot control “recalcitrant”. The thesis, then, is that one can intend recalcitrant
social ends. I present a positive argument in favor of this idea, and then argue
against some purported conditions on the possible content of intentions that would rule
out the possibility of intending such ends. The positive argument is the following: intentions
are realized by a certain cluster of dispositions. One can come to be so disposed
towards recalcitrant social ends. So one can come to be disposed toward such ends in
the manner that realizes an intention. So one can intend recalcitrant social ends. The
conditions against which I argue are known in the literature as the Own Action Condition,
the Control Condition, and the Settle Condition. I present cases where, intuitively,
agents genuinely intend ends that would be ruled out by these conditions.