The know-how solution to Kraemer's puzzle
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Updated: Jul 30, 2025
The Use of the Puzzle Box as a Means of Assessing the Efficacy of Environmental Enrichment
Published on: December 29, 2014
1Philosophy, Cornell University, United States of America.
Abstract:
In certain cases, people judge that agents bring about ends intentionally but also that they do not bring about the means that brought about those ends intentionally-even though bringing about the ends and means is just as likely. We call this difference in judgments the Kraemer effect. We offer a novel explanation for this effect: a perceived difference in the extent to which agents know how to bring about the means and the ends explains the Kraemer effect. In several experiments, we replicate the Kraemer effect in a variety of non-moral and moral scenarios, and we find support for our new account. This work accords with a burgeoning area of action theory that identifies an important connection between know-how and intentionality.
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