Three Ways of Spilling Ink

May 8, 2025 | 762 words | 4min read

Paper Title: Three Ways of Spilling Ink
Link to Paper: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2183222
Date: October 1966
Paper Type: Philosophy, Action theory, Philosophy of Language
Short Abstract:
In this paper, the author differentiates between purpose, intention, and deliberation, aiming to define their meanings in the context of human action.

0. Introduction

When we talk about responsibility in the context of action, we need to establish whether someone acted freely or not. To determine this, it is helpful to examine not only the conditions that excuse an action, but also the kinds of words that intensify responsibility.

Three key terms are:

• Intend – Did the person intend the action?
• Purpose – What was the purpose behind the action?
• Deliberate – Did the person deliberate before acting?

For example, if a teacher sees a child spilling ink all over their desk, they might ask:

• “Did you intend to spill the ink?”
• “What were you thinking when you did this?”
• “Why did you do this—what was your purpose in spilling all this ink?”

At first glance, these questions seem to be asking the same thing or at least pointing toward the same issue. But is that really the case?

1. Word Delimitation

Let’s explore these distinctions through examples.

Imagine I stretch a cord across the top of a staircase, and later an elderly woman trips over it and dies. We wouldn’t ask if I intended her death, or if I had a purpose in her tripping—some things seem impossible to do without intention or purpose.

Suppose I needed money for betting on horse races. I take cash from the register, fully intending to return it once I win. The intention is clear—but what about the purpose? Was my purpose to return the money? No—it was to use the money for betting.

Now imagine I come home and find broken glass on my doorstep. I throw it onto the sidewalk. It seems obvious I intended to do that—I knew what a sidewalk was. But was that my purpose? Did I do it deliberately?

Or take a case where, in the heat of a fight, I impulsively punch someone. That action would not be deliberate, but it still happened with intention. So, it is possible to act with intention but without deliberation.

Consider a group of kids who go around damaging trees. Their acts may be deliberate, but did they have a purpose? Or when kids burn ants with a magnifying glass—did they have a goal in mind? Perhaps not, yet the acts were certainly intentional. So, we can act with intention but without purpose.

Now picture this: I’m in my car, about to leave my driveway, when I get a call that my daughter has been hospitalized. I see the neighbor’s bike in my path. I know I should stop and move it, but in my panic, I decide to drive over it. In this case, the action was deliberate, but not intended—I didn’t mean to damage the bike, but I knowingly chose not to avoid it.

This brings to mind phrases like “accidentally on purpose”—a way to describe something done without clear intention, but with some kind of purpose in mind. Here, we have an act that is purposeful, but not intended.

2. Definition

The most difficult term here is intended. As we go through life, we usually have a sense of what we are trying to do. We rarely “discover” what we did after the fact. Acting with intention often involves a plan, and the concept of intention is closely tied to this. For example, saying “I intended to eat dinner tonight” rules out the idea that it could happen unintentionally.

The function of words like intended is to bracket an action—to define its scope. For instance, when a thief says he intended to return the money he stole, he is asking us to evaluate the whole arc of the action, not just the act of theft.

The word purpose, on the other hand, refers to the goal or end we aim at. It is the result we want to bring about through our action—but it’s not necessary to have a purpose in order to act. Many actions are intentional but purposeless.

Finally, an action is deliberate if we pause to think before doing it—asking ourselves, “Should I do this or not?” If, after reflection, we choose to act, then the act is deliberate.

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