Processes, Activities, and Actions

Abstract

Are events or processes the ontological basis for a satisfying philosophical account of action and agency? This chapter offers some reasons for seeing particular processes as more basic than events for a proper understanding of these issues. It takes as its starting point three reputable opinions which any adequate account should consider and argues that these are best accommodated within a process-based account. In developing this argument, the chapter formulates an alternative event-based account and analyses some of the motivations which have led to its acceptance. In conclusion, the chapter compares the author’s suggestion, seen as Aristotelian in inspiration, with other ways of understanding actions and agency which have gained currency since Davidson’s seminal work in the 1960s and 1970s.