Actology

Action, Change, and Diversity in the Western Philosophical Tradition

Malcolm Torry

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781725266742, 9781725266759
• eBook ISBN: 9781725266766
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

Two streams run through the Western philosophical stream: one characterized by Being, beings, the unchanging, the static, and the unitary; and the other by Action, actions, the changing, the dynamic, and the diverse. The former might be represented by Parmenides, Plato, and much of what followed; the latter by Heraclitus, and by rather less of what followed. The book explores the "Action" stream as it wound its way through history, through Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Maurice Blondel, Henri Bergson, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, process philosophy and theology, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Boys Smith. The journey enables us to create the beginnings of an "actology": a way of seeing ourselves, the universe, and God in terms of actions in patterns rather than as beings that change. Such an actology offers a complete alternative narrative far more in tune with the diverse and rapidly changing world in which we live than the ontology that has shaped philosophy, theology, and much else for the past two thousand years.

1

Actions in patterns

Definitions, relationships, and difficulties

A. Introduction

I am writing this in Switzerland after walking from Meiringen to the top of the Reichenbach Falls and looking down at the water falling on and wearing away the rock. Having returned from the walk there is now a violent thunderstorm rolling around the sky above me. The reality is the movement, the change, the action, the dynamic, the diversity. We might speak of these events by using nouns—“waterfall,” “thunderstorm”—but the reality is better described by verbs: falling, wearing, rolling, thundering, flashing. Lightning is not a thing. It is pure action, in somewhat unpredictable patterns. A waterfall is not a thing: it is actions in patterns; and those patterns change constantly. Everything is action, at many levels—including the mountain-side down which the water is falling. “Waterfall” is a verb.

Everything is of this character. There are no things. There are actions in changing patterns. And the same is true of myself.

When you look at a waterfall for any length of time, and then turn your eyes to the rock face next to it, the rock face rises. We only call this an optical illusion because we regard the rock face as static, at rest, unchangeable. It is not. It is whirling through the universe, around the sun, and around the earth’s axis, along with everything else. There is no still point, no vantage point, no fixed standpoint. There are changing patterns of actions.

B. Definitions1

a. Definition by usage

What is the meaning of “definition”? That is, what are we doing when we “define” something? (How should we define “define”? Take care, reader, that you do not disappear down an infinite regress.)

Ludwig Wittgenstein suggested that we discover the meaning of language by studying how language is used, and, as the same word might be used in different ways in a multitude of different contexts, he offered the image of “family resemblances” to describe the relationship between one use of a word and another.2

By “definition” we generally mean a set of words that indicates the “meaning” of a word or group of words. This immediately poses a problem. If we study a particular use of a word and then construct a set of words to express the meaning of that use, then the use of the new set of words, and of each of its component words, will be specific to a particular context: so even if we employ the same definition (in the sense of the same set of words in the same order), it will have different meanings in different contexts. However, there really will be a family resemblance: and it is on this that dictionaries rely when they define a word or a group of words: so the Oxford English Dictionary not only offers a definition of each English word commonly in use, but it also lists the particular usages on which it has based its definition. Take, for example, definitions and examples given for the noun “action”:

I. Something that is done . . .

Something done or performed, a deed, an act. . . .

1991 P. Barker Regeneration i. 8 The throwing away of the medal still struck him as odd. That surely had been the action of a man at the end of his tether. . .

Chiefly with the. The event or series of events represented or described in a play, film, novel, or similar work. . . .

1994 Guardian (Nexis) 24 Mar. 8 I was invited to a meeting with Steven Spielberg in Cracow, which is where the action of the film takes place. . . .

II. The process or action of doing . . . .

The exertion of force or influence by one thing on another; influence, effect; agency ..

2007 Brit. Archaeol. Sept.–Oct. 9/1 Material churned up by former glacial action. . . .

With reference to a thing (material or abstract): the exertion of energy or influence; working, operation (as opposed to inaction or repose). . . .

1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) xii. 516/2 Special “slots” . . . reject the tip of the screwdriver when the action is reversed in an attempt to remove the screw. . . .

What the definitions make clear is that even though “action” is here described as a noun, and functions grammatically as one, it always refers back to a verb or series of verbs. It is therefore no surprise to find “action” listed as a verb as well. The dictionary describes as “rare” the definition

To act upon physically; to move, manipulate. . .

1990 Games Rev. Jan. 7/2 It is difficult to move and action any pieces without creating mayhem with the rest. . . .

but as now common usage

Esp. in business jargon: to take action on, to deal with; to put into effect. . .

1985 Rescue News Summer 8/1 Concern has been expressed at the manner in which the whole operation has been put together and actioned. . . .

The related intransitive verb “to act” is given several definitions: for instance,

To perform actions, to do things; to take action. . . .

1997 W. F. Brundage Under Sentence of Death ii. 96 Shackleford claimed that Chase acted alone in promoting the peace warrant against him. . . .

To behave, to comport oneself. Frequently with adverbial complement. . . .

1947 G. Vidal In Yellow Wood ii. ix. 119 Mrs Stevanson didn’t know their names but she acted as if they were her dearest friends. . . .

And as a transitive verb, the dictionary gives

To perform an assumed role in a play, film, or other dramatic work; to be an actor. Also in extended use: to pretend, to put on an act. . . .

2002 Courier Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 21 Sept. m4 Carroll is a man who loves to act, and is again enjoying the pace of rehearsing for the stage after his recent role on the big screen.

Whilst “action” is always a verb, or refers back to a verb or verbs, it normally relates closely to nouns, or to adjectives that imply nouns: “man,” “film,” “screwdriver,” “pieces,” “operation,” “Chase,” “Mrs Stevanson,” “Carroll.” These are not verbs and they do not refer back to verbs. The interesting exception is “glacial action.” Here the action is the primary consideration, and “glacial” expresses a particular pattern of actions. This usage, and the first part of the related definition—“The process or action of doing . . .”—is close to the understanding of “action” that we are trying to develop in this book: that is, it sees “action” as expressing action abstracted from things, and things understood as actions in patterns.

The relevant definition of the noun “change” is

Alteration . . .

The action or process of making or becoming different; alteration, variation. Also: an instance of this; an alteration in the state or quality of something; a modification. . . .

1969 T. Alexander Children & Adolescents iv. 99 ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Background and Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Actions in patterns
• Chapter 2: Change and the unchanging among the ancient Greeks, Part 1
• Chapter 3: Change and the unchanging among the ancient Greeks, Part 2
• Chapter 4: Hegel’s dialectic
• Chapter 5: Maurice Blondel
• Chapter 6: Henri Bergson
• Chapter 7: A Single Fire
• Chapter 8: Process Philosophy and Theology
• Chapter 9: Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy’s suffering God
• Chapter 10: Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Boys Smith
• Chapter 11: Towards an actology
• Bibliography