ABSTRACT
In an effort to take on the mantle of a ‘science’, psychologists dropped the use of the terms action and conduct and replaced them with the one term behaviour, which was given a special physicalistic twist. This was all part of an attempt to ‘physicalise’ the human mind. The latter term can be applied to atoms, lower animals, and meteorological systems whereas the first two seem to carry a sense of purposiveness. One acts for a reason, in order to do this or that, or as an expression of some attitude. Our interest is in intentional action, that is, action done for a purpose, though that purpose may be so routine that it is not consciously deliberated. If we can regard human beings as exhibiting at least some behaviour that is of this type, that is, action or conduct, then it makes sense to draw on traditional concepts such as agency, responsibility, and character, all of which map our behaviour onto some moral order.
