Act; conduct

Japanese: 行為 - こうい（英語表記）act; conduct

A purposeful act of the personality. A conscious activity with clear purpose and motive, decided after deliberation and selection of means and other factors. However, it does not always involve physical movement, as in the case of omission in legal acts and existential acts. It is therefore different from unconscious mechanical instinctive actions and from actions as a total response to stimuli, and is closely related to concepts such as reason, will, freedom, and responsibility that are essential to personality. Technical production actions are also purposeful, but they are distinguished from actions in which the action itself is the issue, in that only the result is considered. Aristotle established the concept of praxis (practice, ethical practice) in contrast to theōria (contemplation) and poiēsis (production, technical practice), and this has become the traditional concept of action in the West. Since personality is realized only through action, action means the activity of self-realization in which human beings externalize themselves and internalize themselves through externalization. Since actions are also actions toward other personalities or transcendental personalities (God, the Transcendent), a distinction is made between ethical actions and existential actions. The former are speech acts, customary actions, and legal actions, while the latter are suicide, religious actions, and inner actions. The subject of existential actions is human existence as existence, which always relates to the Transcendent and is carried out in a concrete situation. Sartre defines action as a decisive investment that realizes freedom in a historical situation.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

人格的有意的な働き。目的と動機が明らかで，手段その他についての思慮，選択を経て決意された自覚的な活動。ただし，法行為における不作為，実存的行為のように，常に身体運動を伴うとはかぎらない。したがって無自覚な機械的本能的動作とは異なり，刺激に対する全体的反応としての行動とも区別され，人格に不可欠の理性，意志，自由，責任などの諸概念と密接なかかわりをもつ。技術的制作動作も有意的であるが結果のみが問われる点で，動作そのものが問題となる行為とは区別される。アリストテレスは theōria (観想) ，poiēsis (制作，技術的実践) に対し，praxis (実践，倫理的実践) の概念を立てたが，これが西洋の行為概念の伝統となっている。人格は行為を通じてのみ実現されるから，行為は人間存在が自己を外化し，外化を通じて自己を内化する自己実現の活動を意味する。行為はまた他の人格ないし超越的人格性 (神，超越者) への働きかけであるから，人倫的行為と実存的行為とが区別される。前者は言語行為，慣習的行為，法行為，後者は自殺，宗教的行為，内面的諸行為など。実存的行為の主体は実存としての人間存在で，常に超越者とかかわり，具体的状況のなかで行う。サルトルは行為を歴史的状況において自由を実現する決断的投企と規定する。

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