Values and Purpose in Human Action
The basic nature of human action can be illuminated by contrast with other life forms. Although scientists may eventually show that dolphins or chimpanzees exhibit some degree of conceptual planning and purpose, by and large the action of plants and other animals appears to be instinctive and automatic. Consciousness in other animals seems to be basically (perhaps entirely) perceptual. Although memory is certainly exhibited, it appears to be associational; the ability to form abstract concepts as discussed in Section 1 is either absent or highly limited. Behavior of these animals and of plants is generally determined by inborn drives and/or environmental conditioning.

Human action, in contrast, is motivated by purposes. Human beings do exhibit certain vegetative processes, such as cell metabolism and heartbeat, which do not arise from volitional control (although in some cases they may be affected by volition). Such vegetative functions, which continue while a human is at sleep or even in a coma, are essentially similar in kind to processes that can be observed in other higher mammals. Because they are not uniquely human, we shall not consider them as "human action" for the purposes of this course.