Professor Brown in this volume discusses one of the most difficult questions in metaphysics, “what is action?” His analysis proceeds along three main lines of thought: the point of view of the agent, the primacy of inanimate action, and the pervasiveness of explanatory insight in the description of action.

Donald G. Brown received his D.Phil. From Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was a Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford, and from 1955 to 1989 he was in the Philosophy Department at the University of British Columbia where he was a professor of philosophy. Professor Brown has had articles published in Mind, Analysis, Philosophy, Philosophical Review and Queen's Quarterly.