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ACTION – VOCABULARY OF PHILOSOPHY

 
 

 
ACTION.—(1) Exercise of vital energy; (2) intelligent, self-directed exercise; Aristotle defines voluntary action as «that the ἀρχὴ of which is in the agent himself» (N. Ethics, III. I. 20); (3) ethical,—action when subjected to moral law. In so far as moral actions are completed, or efficient, in the sense of reaching an end, they have a threefold form—(a) the motive or inward disposition impelling to action, (b) the overt act in which the inward motive expresses itself, (c) the purpose or contemplated end for attainment of which the action is done. Each one of these is in an ethical sense an action, i.e., activity subject to moral law.