ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the distinction between a bodily movement or happening and a bodily action, in terms of the order of causes. The author concluded that it is impossible by any adjunction of events or factors to transform a bodily movement into an item of human action. This moral has now been reinforced by the detailed inquiry into the role of motives and desires in the explanation of human conduct. Traditionally, these have been construed as causal factors, internal thrusts or pushes that issue in movements or actions, the distinction between which has been generally obscured by the muddying term 'overt behaviour'. But the connection between these and action is, the author argued, a logical connection, not causal. It is impossible to grasp the concepts of motive and desire independently of the concept of an action.
