 Although James plays down attention’s role in complex perceptual phenomena, he does assign attention to an important explanatory role in the production of behaviour. He claims, for example, that ‘Volition is nothing but attention’ (424). But when James makes such claims it is as part of a general project that seeks always to be deflationary where possible. When James associates attention with volition it is as a way of suggesting how volition could be given a deflationary treatment, not as a way of inflating attention’s explanatory role.