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An action, as philosophers use the term, is a certain kind of thing a person can do. Throwing a baseball, which involves intention and coordinated bodily movement is an action. Catching a cold is not usually considered an action, because it is something which happens to a person, not something done by them. Other events are less clearly defined as actions or not. Deciding to do something might be considered an action by some, yet by others it is not an action if the decision is not carried out. Unsuccessfully trying to do something might also not be considered an action, since the intention was not completed. Believing, intending, and thinking might also be considered actions, yet because they refer to purely internal states, such a classification is not universally agreed upon. Some would prefer to define actions as involving bodily movement (see behaviorism). Even mere existence might be classified as an action by some. The effects of actions might be considered actions, in certain situations. For example, poisoning a well is an action. If the poisoned water resulted in a death, that death might be considered an action on the person who poisoned a well, whether classified as a single act or two acts. The classification of actions can become even less clear when the effect of the action is contrary to the intention, such as accidentally curing a person of an unknown disease while intending to kill them by poisoning the well.
A primary concern of philosophy of action is to demarcate actions from other similar phenomena. Other concerns include individuating actions from one another, explaining the relation between actions and their effects, and saying how an action is related the beliefs and desires which give rise to it, and the intentions with which it is performed (a subject called practical reason): Actions may or may not be considered to be caused by the reason for action (see determinism). If the reasons do not cause the actions, then they must explain action in some other sense. Actions are not usually considered to be done by inanimate objects, like the sun, which shines, but without intention. On the other hand, a human may still be considered to be acting without a specific intention.
Action has been of concern to Western philosophers since Aristotle, who wrote about the subject in his Nicomachean Ethics. It is the theme of the Hindu epic Bhagavad Gita, in which the Sanskrit word karma epitomizes personal action. It has nearly always been bound up with Ethics, the study of what actions one ought to perform. Some of the most prominent comtemporary philosophers who have worked in it are Ludwig Wittgenstein, Elizabeth Anscombe, Donald Davidson, and Jennifer Hornsby.
Many branches of Buddhism reject the notion of agency in varying degrees. In these schools of thought there is action, but no agent.
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