Are the Problems Too Big?

I start my course in political psychology by introducing "the problem." We start with "frictional" rather than "normative" problems. The friction is easy to describe: either you wanted something you couldn't have or do or something you didn't want was done. Those are frictions. "Wanting" seems a fundamental part of human motivation. It is the "willing" part of "willing and able." But the narrower condition that this leaves out is "wanting and in consequence, trying." For class purposes, the question is this: "Is just 'wanting' in the absence of any specific attempt to achieve the purported goal, useful evidence of an actual intention?" The conventional notation has been W = wanted to, b1 = because, but (D) = was not able to, b2, because. The first explanation (b) says why you wanted to; the second, why you were not able. But what if we changed it to I = intended to; to to T = tried to? "Tried to" captures the immediacy I am after. It screens out "I always wanted to live in Japan," which certainly needs to be screened out. "Intended to" is helpfully broader, but it raises the question of what ought to count as an "intention." It is more than wanting to but less than trying to.