Ideas and Actions: Justification and Hypocrisy as Alternatives to Control

Abstract

This chapter discusses the relationship between ideas and actions. It is not easy either for individuals or for groups to reconcile ideas and actions. The world of ideas is very different from the world of action. Three differences in particular between the conditions for ideas and action can create difficulties in achieving consistency and control. The first concerns the actual content of ideas and actions. Second, ideas may develop one way in contexts in which ideas are of central importance, and in another way in contexts in which action is the more crucial. This can give rise to problems of control. Finally, ideas may sometimes arise and change and disappear more rapidly than actions. This affects the possibility of reconciling consistency with control. The discussion focuses on the problem as it affects groups with a constituency-actor structure, although some problems may be similar to those experienced by individual human beings.