Speech and Action

[NikolaiI]

What is the difference between speech and action?

Communication on here, I am assuming that is a form of speech. But it is an action for me to be here at the computer. Typing is an action, but the communication is speech. If I make a mistake, as far as what I say, then I have made a mistake in speech. But how do I know if it is the right action?

They are connected, and if I am speaking right, then it is right action to speak, but if I speak wrong, then I shouldn't speak.

Is it an action to not speak? Is it action to not act? I have always thought that living was action, breathing was action, so that we cannot escape action. But it's easy to escape speech, we do that all the time.

Speech and action are tied together, since to move my mouth is to speak, and it is also an action. When I should, it's a bigger action, and waving my arms around is certainly an action. Speech is always action; action is not always speech.

[blazeofglory]

EVEN THINKING IS ALSO ACTION, FOR AFTER A PROLONGED THINKING WE GET EXHAUSTED. EVEN BREATHING IS ALSO ACTION. LIFE IS A PROCESS WHICH IS Always in action.

[Rakthor]

EVEN THINKING IS ALSO ACTION, FOR AFTER A PROLONGED THINKING WE GET EXHAUSTED. EVEN BREATHING IS ALSO ACTION. LIFE IS A PROCESS WHICH IS Always in action.

Wow. Caps lock is cruise control for cool, you know.

Anyways, I agree with blazeofglory, regardless of his choice of case. I will assume that it was an honest mistake. There is little, if any, difference between speech and action. If you believe in causality, then everything affects everything else. Maybe actions have a larger impact, but maybe they do not. Well, that's my two cents.

[jgweed]

One can define "action" as widely as one wants, even to the point where sitting quietly beside a brook is action. But we generally associate action with physical movement and locomotion, and thinking with a mental process.

Now speech (or writing) is an active effect (hopefully) of thinking which is prior to its manifestation. And to not speak is not an action but a choice, just as it is a decision not to write a novel.

[dramasnot6]

Thinking,on many different levels(not just consciously), determines action.

[jgweed]

...but not all actions are caused by thought. For example, we use a fork to eat out of habit, or are "caught up in the spirit of the moment" and act spontaneously. In these examples, "thinking" can only be applied in a very loose manner.

[blazeofglory]

...but not all actions are caused by thought. For example, we use a fork to eat out of habit, or are "caught up in the spirit of the moment" and act spontaneously. In these examples, "thinking" can only be applied in a very loose manner.

Not only all actions are not caused by thought it is action that causes thought.

Action is independent of thought. Indeed there was action prior to thought.

[jgweed]

It is a strange doctrine when in one breath it claims that action causes thought, and in the next breath that action is independent of thought. It certainly contradicts our common experience of making plans for the future and our understanding of human motivation.

[blazeofglory]

Speech and actions are two diverse directions and both can not come to the point to be in sync with each other.

[Smoogles]

This is a pointless argument my friends, Action accounts for a various amount of things, Action (as defined in philosophy) Is something done by one. So speaking, playing basketball, kicking, sign language, and motor boating all fall under the category of Action; and if you are not 'doing' anything then it is not an action because there is nothing one is acting on. But catching a cold is not an Action because it is something which happens to a person, not done by one. So that should clear you up and I hope I helped a tad.

[blazeofglory]

T if you are not 'doing' anything then it is not an action because there is nothing one is acting on. .

In the Gita we come upon examples of Karma. Not a second goes spared without Karma in point of fact. Even breathing is Karma. When we breathe in and out are spates of actions.

Action is universal not speech.

[Smoogles]

In the Gita we come upon examples of Karma. Not a second goes spared without Karma in point of fact. Even breathing is Karma. When we breathe in and out are spates of actions.

Action is universal not speech.

Oh, how could I be so dumb. For a second there I forgot all about Karma and how it really does exist, you know with all that proof out there, I think God showed me one time what it looked like . So if speech isn't an action, neither is walking; plain and simple, just because one can do it and another can't (i.e. universal) doesn't mean that it isn't an action.

[jgweed]

When we think, don't we actually speak to ourselves?
And isn't physical speech a subset, as it were, of action?

And action may be observed, so it is not always done by one; we watch a football game where the action is performed by Others, or sit in a theatre and watch a performance of Hamlet.
And watching is also an action....

[NikolaiI]

When we think, don't we actually speak to ourselves?
And isn't physical speech a subset, as it were, of action?

And action may be observed, so it is not always done by one; we watch a football game where the action is performed by Others, or sit in a theatre and watch a performance of Hamlet.
And watching is also an action....

I think we cannot escape action. To exist is to act. To exist-- it is not that we are always exerting a force, but presence itself is the act of "presencing." So I do not exist, but I am existing, which is an action. Perhaps.

[jgweed]

Perhaps then, one needs to distinguish between activity and action in that the latter involves movement, and activity can include such activities as paying attention to, mentally preparing for, thinking about, listening to, and "presencing" in all sorts of ways.
Both allow for a kind of re-action and trans-action, although one is more properly physical than the other.