Abstract
There is an ongoing debate in the ontology of action
about whether actions are processes, events, relations, or sui generis
entities. This paper focuses on the process view, the view that
actions are processes. I challenge it in two ways. First, I argue that
some actions are not processes because their performance need
not be associated with or accompanied by a process. Second, I
critically discuss three main arguments that have been advanced to
support the process view. My view, the pluralist view, is that
process-theorists are right to hold that certain actions are
processes, but wrong to maintain that every action is a process:
activities are processes, acts are not, and some acts are composed
of a process whereas others are not.