Metaphysics and Epistemology Group (Tuesday - Week 8, TT23)

Many of our abilities are inexact. I’m able to raise my voice, but not by a specific decibel level.  I’m able to tilt my head, but not by a precise degree. I’m able to wiggle my ears, but not at a particular speed. Inexact abilities are puzzling. For isn’t it necessary that if I raise my voice, there is a specific decibel level by which I raise it? So if no specific decibel level is such that I’m able to raise my voice by it, how am I able to raise my voice? While many in the literature take the phenomenon of inexact ability to motivate alternative semantics for agentive modals, I explore a view which seeks to explain the inexactness of ability via the inexactness of intentional action.