Basic action

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As a basic action (engl. " Basic action ") is referred to in the philosophical theory of action actions which are carried out directly (abruptly) and the particular shall not be accomplished by the fact that another action is performed. Here is an example: I can ventilate the room by opening the window. I open the window by grabbing the window handle and then turning it. However, I do not perform the rotary movement by doing something else, I perform it directly. Therefore, this is a basic action. As in this example, basic actions are to be equated with body movements.

According to Georg Henrik von Wright , one must distinguish between the result and the consequences of an action (cf. Von Wright, explain and understand , II, 8 in the Suhrkamp edition: p. 69 ff). In the case of my action to open the window, the result of the action is the fact that the window is open, a consequence is that the room is ventilated. In the case of my act of ventilating, however, the fact that the room is ventilated is the result of the act. The outcome of the action is always implied by the description of the action . The act of ventilation is not a consequence of the act of opening. It is the same action event , but it is described differently. In this respect, the basic action can also be described as the description of an action event that does not imply any of its consequences.

According to von Wright, it would be wrong to say that I perform the twisting motion of my hand by tensing and relaxing certain muscle groups (so that this basic action would not be a basic action after all). Because " I neither know which muscles these are, nor how I should contract them - except by turning my hand " (ibid.). This shows an " intentional " component of the basic action: Part of the concept of the basic action is knowing how to carry it out ( knowing how ), and this knowledge must not be conveyed by knowing how to do it about another action executes. It also means that something that is a basic act for one person may not be a basic act for another person. For example, a practiced piano player can perform a certain trill as a basic action, while a beginner playing the piano has to put it together from individual actions.

The concept of basic action was first introduced by Arthur C. Danto . Danto defines a basic act as an act that is not caused by another act of the same actor. Von Wright later (following Stoutland) presents the definition given here, which avoids the problematic concept of an action that causes an action.

literature

  • Arthur C. Danto, "What We Can Do," Journal of Philosophy 60 (1963), 435-45
  • Arthur C. Danto, "Basic Actions," American Philosophical Quarterly 2 (1965): 141-48
  • J. Hornsby Actions , London 1980.
  • F. Stoutland "Basic Actions and Causality" Journal of Philosophy 65 (1968)
  • Georg Henrik Von Wright Explanation and Understanding , New York 1971; German: "Explain and Understand", Frankfurt a. M. 1974.

Web links

Master's thesis ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 576 kB) on the subject of basic action, supervised by Georg Meggle