ABSTRACT
In the naturalistic view of life, at its extreme, we can say that action is less like itself and closer to movement. The fulcrum of force is no longer in the personal intelligence but evasively located in the whole area of force composed of the biological process and history. Action involves character which involves choice-and the form of choice attains its perfection in the distinction between yes and no. Though the concept of sheer motion is non-ethical, action implies the ethical, the human personality. In a sense the problem of action has been solved, as any religion solves it, by offering a final success to motives. However, this has the particularly passive aspect of an animistic, natural religion. A veritable religion of maximum consciousness, to use F. O. Matthiessen's reference to Henry James, is to be found in the most influential modern writing.
