self-activityn.
/ˌsɛlfakˈtɪvᵻti/, /ˌsɛlfəkˈtɪvᵻti/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfəkˈtɪvᵻdi/, /ˌsɛlfˌækˈtɪvᵻdi/ Activity performed of one's own accord, without external cause or influence; activity motivated by one's own will or performed for one's own sake.In Marxist discourse denoting an ideal form of labour, in contrast with that which prevails under capitalism; cf. quot. 1961.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > [noun] > uninfluenced by external impulse
self-action1613
self-activity1644
spontaneity1651
vacuum activity1953
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. ii. Concl. 455 A selfe actiuity, and vnbounded extent, and essence free from time and place.
1674 J. Howe Treat. Delighting in God i. 82 How great is the joy and pleasure of self-activity! when the Soul is not moved by foreign, improper motives, but finds it self to move freely.
1706 R. Cudworth Confut. Reason & Philos. Atheism Introd. 18 Matter is essentially passive and without Motion or Self-activity.
1749 W. Law Spirit of Prayer: Pt. I ii. 77 Stop therefore all Self-activity, listen not to the Suggestions of thy own Reason, run not on in thy own Will.
1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic i. 3 The spontaneity, or self-activity, of the intellect.
1889 St. G. Mivart Truth 190 Whenever we act, we have a certain vague feeling of our self-activity.
1932 C. S. Myers Absurdity of Any Mind–Body Relation 4 All conscious mental activity is self-activity; only the self is conscious—conscious, at first, solely of self-activity (conation) and of modifications of that self-activity (affects).
1961 R. C. Tucker Philos. & Myth in Marx viii. 134 ‘Self-activity’.., by which Marx means free creativity in which a person feels thoroughly at home with himself..and experiences his energies as his own.
2016 Amer. Prospect Spring 21/2 Presidential elections..ignite a level of energy and self-activity that's hard to capture and transfer.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1644