The confrontation of four recent written works, three of which are works of critical exegesis referring to David Hume, Georg Simmel and Pierre Bourdieu, allows one to question the theories of action and in particular the notion of rational action which Hans Joas proposes to replace by « creative acting ». After having examined the main reproaches made by these authors as regards the rational action model, there is a presentation and evaluation of the way in which they deal with the theme of human action, paying special attention to the possible risks of drifting off subject due to excess of relativism or, on the other hand, of objectivism. The result is that the reproaches and propositions put forward oblige nobody to abandon the paradigm of rational action, but invite one to alter it by taking passions and beliefs into account more.