Action

From Homolexis Glossary

In the expression “piece of the action,” the term refers to monetary gain, sometimes illicit. A more general sense is “excitement.” The word may also suggest impatience, as in the character nicknamed “Action” in the musical “Westside Story” (1957).

In the sexual realm the term originally referred to movement of the buttocks, as in “the guys knew he only went for girls with action.” From this sense it morphed into a general term for sexual activity, as in the question “Where’s the action around here?” As a sexual invitation, one may say “How about some action?”

Remote from these mundane haunts is a lofty philosophical development. The French Catholic philosopher Maurice Blondel achieved renown with his 1893 book L'Action. In keeping with the vitalist currents of the day, Blondel held that philosophy must take its start not from abstract thought alone but from the whole of our life--thinking, feeling, willing. Late twentieth-century philosophy has taken up what is called “action theory,” concerned among other matters with the question of agency. These inquiries have only a distant connection with Blondel’s concerns.