Intended Meaning
Shahrur distinguishes between action and act. Action is a general conscious movement, whereas an act is a specific and delimited action. For this reason, he does not treat the two terms as synonyms, but rather establishes between them a relation of generality and specificity.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: Distinctive
- Movement of the argument: it makes action more general, and act more specific and defined.
- Central terms: action, act, consciousness, signification.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
This atom serves the principle of rejecting synonymy, and is useful in reading human responsibility, righteous action, divine decree, and historical act.
Reading Aids
- The Book and the Qur’an
- Righteous action
- Divine decree is a conscious human act
- Making is the product of cognitive work
- Humanity, freedom, and responsibility
Basis
- Supporting text: “Action is a general conscious movement, and act is a specific action.”
Place of the Basis in the Book
- Book: The Book and the Qur’an.
- Location: within the discussion of saying, action, act, and making.
- Type of basis: nearby witness.
- Marker for verification: action, act, human actions, specific acts.
- Reading note: the location is appropriate because it explicitly transforms humans’ general actions into specific acts.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the formulation of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is distinctive; it regulates a linguistic pair that affects the understanding of righteous action, human act, and responsibility.
Related to
Editorial Note
This atom strengthens the line of rejecting synonymy because it does not stop at distinguishing between major terms; rather, it descends to a quotidian pair such as action and act.