Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 1989"
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TL;DR: The nature and function of human agency is examined within the conceptual model of triadic reciprocal causation, which accords a central role to cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective, and self-regulatory processes.
Abstract: The present article examines the nature and function of human agency within the conceptual model of triadic reciprocal causation. In analyzing the operation of human agency in this interactional causal structure, social cognitive theory accords a central role to cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective, and self-regulatory processes. The issues addressed concern the psychological mechanisms through which personal agency is exercised, the hierar- chical structure of self-regulatory systems, eschewal of the dichotomous construal of self as agent and self as object, and the properties of a nondualistic but nonreductional conception of human agency. The relation of agent cau- sality to the fundamental issues of freedom and deter- minism is also analyzed. The recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the self-referent phenomena. One can point to several reasons why self processes have come to pervade many domains of psychology. Self-generated activities lie at the very heart of causal processes. They not only contribute to the meaning and valence of most external influences, but they also function as important proximal determi- nants of motivation and action. The capacity to exercise control over one's own thought processes, motivation, and action is a distinctively human characteristic. Because judgments and actions are partly self-determined, people can effect change in themselves and their situations through their own efforts. In this article, I will examine the mechanisms of human agency through which such changes are realized.
6,408 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, a review examines the nature of selfefficacy and related terms, reviews the research literature on the development of self-efficacy, how social structure and group processes affect this development, considers changes of self efficacy over the life course, and reviews the consequences of self empowerment for individual functioning and for social change.
Abstract: The topic of self-efficacy is part of a broad literature which has developed around the issues of human agency, mastery, and control. Its more delimited focus is on perceptions and assessments of self with regard to competence, effectiveness, and causal agency. Self-efficacy has become an important variable within social psychological research because of its association with various favorable consequences, especially in the areas of physical and mental health. It is also quite congruent with the Western emphasis on such values as mastery, self-reliance, and achievement. This review examines the nature of self-efficacy and related terms, reviews the research literature on the development of self-efficacy and how social structure and group processes affect this development, considers changes of self-efficacy over the life course, and reviews the consequences of self-efficacy for individual functioning and for social change. The focus of the review is on the social psychological literature within sociology, ...
857 citations
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TL;DR: A notable feature of recent sociological writing is the growing frequency with which actions are interpreted as forming part of a strategy, and sociologists' usage of the concept of ''strategy'' is now sufficiently common to warrant its investigation, especially since important and difficult issues are raised when it is adopted as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: One notable feature of recent sociological writing is the growing frequency with which actions are interpreted as forming part of a strategy. All sorts of social actors, from lowly individuals, through households, family businesses, social movements and classes, to mighty multi-national corporations and nation-states, have been represented as employing strategies, and sociologists' usage of the concept of `strategy' is now sufficiently common to warrant its investigation, especially since important and difficult issues are raised when it is adopted. Academic fashion may play a part in explaining the current prominence within the sociological vocabulary of the concept of `strategy', but greater significance should be attached to underlying trends in sociological theorising, even if these are not appreciated in every case where `strategy' is found being employed. Analysis of actions and their outcomes in terms of strategies carries with it the promise of avoiding some of the pitfalls of the classic agency/s...
191 citations
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01 Aug 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take a feminist perspective on career theory and explore the relevance of women's experiences and their meaning in the context of career theory, and their potential contribution to career theory is shaped by these changes.
Abstract: INTRODUCTION In this chapter I take a feminist perspective on career theory. There is no one feminism; rather this umbrella label covers many diverse perspectives held together by several broad uniting themes. Feminists tend to share a belief that women are oppressed in a society dominated by men (patriarchy) and concerns to change this situation and to honor and voice women's experiences and meanings. Beyond this there is considerable variety. Neither is feminism static: It is lived, in the sense that it arises from and informs being and doing and is continually evolving and changing. I cannot therefore speak for other women, although I draw on and value their work and experiences. This chapter is my current personal perspective, one story from a range of possibilities. The chapter is in two main parts: The first offers some core strands in feminist thinking, which are then woven together in the second part, which explores their relevance to career theory. The first part is a brief tour of a vast and complex area. It starts with a selective history of the development of feminism. A historical perspective is necessary in order to understand the social context within which theory about women is developing. There have been major changes since 1960 in women's roles in society and in their attitudes toward employment. Feminism's potential contribution to career theory is shaped by these changes. Within feminism, writers have offered a wide range of approaches to understanding women's experiences and their traditionally subordinate social position; these explanations range from the psychological to the structural, from the biological to the social and so on.
154 citations
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TL;DR: The history of archaeological concern with the individual social actor is traced, and a divergence between emphasis of human agency in theory and ignorance in pratice is noted as mentioned in this paper, and three studies are critiqued in this light: Shanks and Tilley's (1987a, Reconstructing archaeology, Cambridge University Press) study of contemporary beer can design in England and Sweden, Leone's (1984, In Ideology, power and prehistory, pp. 25−35) interpretation of the William Paca Garden, and Hodder's (1982b, In Symbolic
151 citations
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06 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, Manning provides a novel way of looking at organizational communication, showing how the meaning of a call to the police is transformed as it moves across the boundaries of the organization (a transformation that involves a series of codings and recodings ensuring a continuous loose linkage of organization and environment).
Abstract: This first major empirical work on the semiotics of social action goes a long way toward answering substantive, theoretical and pragmatic questions on how codes actually operate in a specific social setting. It underscores the important yet often ignored role of the police as "sign" or "information workers."Calls to the police represent a rich variety of human troubles, concerns, and needs by focusing on how police handle calls from the public, how they ascertain what a call means and what should be done with it, and how this is transformed through subsystems within the organization, Peter Manning provides a novel way of looking at organizational communication."Symbolic Communication "provides examples of how members of an organization interpret their environment - in this instance, how the meaning of a call to the police is transformed as it moves across the boundaries of the organization (a transformation that involves a series of codings and recodings ensuring a continuous loose linkage of organization and environment). Manning shows why the police act in ways that differ from the way citizens and politicians would have them act, revealing the uncertainties that surround a policy agency's responsiveness. And he points out how today's computer technologies constrain the coding process, limiting in particular the effectiveness of the 911 systems used in most of our major cities.Peter K. Manning is a Professor of Psychiatry and of Sociology at Michigan State University and a member of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford. "Symbolic Communication "brings to fruition themes and ideas introduced in his previous books, "Police Work "and "The Narc's Game. Symbolic Communication" is included in the Organization Studies series, edited by John van Maanen.
112 citations
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01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The Causal Theory of Action (CTA) as mentioned in this paper is a theory of action that is based on the agent-causationist approach to the problem of natural agency.
Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction Notes Part I. The Problems of Natural Agency: 1. A theory in search of its problem 2. Commitments of the ethical perspective 3. Commitments of the natural perspective 4. The core of the problem of action - and a plausible solution Part II. The Value of a Causal Theory of Action: 1. A traditional approach to the problem of natural agency 2. Is action possible under determination 3. Is action possible under indeterminism? 4. A comparison with Dennett's elbow room 5. The conditional analysis argument Part III. Developing a Causal Theory of Action: 1. Causal analyses of action 2. The challenge of Akrasia Part IV. The Challenge of Causal Deviance: Part V. Coping with Basic Deviance: 1. The promise of the sensitivity strategy 2. Alternative versions of the sensitivity strategy 3. Assessing the sensitivity strategy 4. Sensitive and sustained causation Part VI. Limits for the Causal Theory of Action: 1. Dealing with the Agent-Causationist syndrome 2. The place of the causal theory of action in the wider project of reconciliatory naturalism Bibliography Index.
91 citations
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TL;DR: The authors identify two predominant perspectives of researchers investigating new religious conversion: Agency Assigned to the Convert (active versus passive) and Level of Analysis (intraindividual versus interindividual).
Abstract: The present paper identifies two predominant perspectives of researchers investigating new religious conversion: Agency Assigned to the Convert (active versus passive) and Level of Analysis (intraindividual versus interindividual). A typology of both types and theories of religious conversion is proffered. The Agency perspective is paradigmatic and dichotomizes conversion research. The level of analysis perspective is subparadigmatic and differentiates types and theories of conversion within each of the two larger paradigmatic perspectives. It is argued that the present typology facilitates: 1) an appreciation of the underlying metatheoretical assumptions and conceptual priorities of contemporary conversion researchers, 2) an integrated social psychological understanding of diverse conversion experiences, and 3) an appreciation of how the tension and conflict between the two paradigmatic perspectives tends to reflect and reproduce the larger tension and conflict between "status quo" and "new society" groups in contemporary American society. Richardson (1985a) has argued that a new paradigm has emerged in contemporary studies of religious conversion and is most apparent in conversion studies with either a social psychological or sociological emphasis. The basis for this argument can be seen in the way that conversion is conceptualized. In the old paradigm, conversion is generally viewed in passivist and deterministic terms, whereas in the new paradigm conversion is generally explained from the standpoint of active agency (i.e., self-directed behavior), personal choice, meaning, and negotiation. In a very real sense, the "old" and "new" paradigms provide diametrically opposed ways of conceptualizing the same phenomena.
80 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, an evolving shadow myth that expresses repressed fears the culture has about its relationship to technology is constructed through an examination of Rocky IV, Blade Runner, and The Terminator.
Abstract: Through an examination of Rocky IV, Blade Runner, and The Terminator, this essay constructs an evolving dystopian shadow myth that expresses repressed fears the culture has about its relationship to technology. In its patriarchal form, the myth depicts an increasing division of technological agency from human agent, leading toward an entelechial end of human obsolescence. If this tragic “perfection” is to be averted, the myth implies, the culture must reintegrate feminine values into its consciousness, thereby activating an oppositional entelechial motive to reidentify agent with agency.
62 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, a survey of recent developments of the literature on adverse selection and moral hazard in agency problems is presented, where both aspects coexist and both agents are income risk-neutral.
50 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, an interdisciplinary "practice theory" is proposed to reinsert agency and practice into critical legal scholarship while providing new conceptual resources to think about legal activity as a product of social agents acting in socially constructed worlds.
Abstract: Critical legal studies has drawn criticism for its supposed theoretical inadequacy. James Boyle suggests that critical legal scholarship is characterized by a tension between structural and subjective poles. The idea that social theory must oscillate between structure and subjectivity is misconceived and as a dichotomy, must be rejected. Legal scholars need to radically reconsider understandings of both in order to fully appreciate the complex relationship between them. The structural and subjective need not be extricated, but rather redefined so that their oppositions no longer consume the dominant debates in social theory. An interdisciplinary “practice theory,” later defined in the article, contributes in reinserting agency and practice into critical legal scholarship while providing new conceptual resources to think about legal activity as a product of social agents acting in socially constructed worlds.
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TL;DR: The fundamental ethical question about capitalism is whether its capacity to create wealth and reduce poverty is offset by a reduction in the moral quality of its participants as discussed by the authors, and most current discussions of business ethics confuse truly ethical issues with ones of policy, liability, or deterrence.
Abstract: Most current discussions of business ethics confuse truly ethical issues with ones of policy, liability, or deterrence. The fundamental ethical question about capitalism is whether its capacity to create wealth and reduce poverty is offset by a reduction in the moral quality of its participants. Though the Wealth of Nations is often read as a book wholly devoted to exchange, in it Adam Smith identifies (and in some cases proposes remedies for) five moral problems created by capitalism: impoverishing the spirit of the workers, creating cities in which anonymity will facilitate price-fixing, expanding the ranks of the rich who lack virtue, inducing government to create monopolies and privileges, and separating ownership and management in ways that lead to what we now call agency problems.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the meaning production engaged in by a group of largely working-class students within transition programs in three secondary schools in New Zealand is examined, arguing that this same activity hardly warrants the optimism evident in contemporary educational discourse relating progressive change at the microlevel of the school to changes in the larger social formation.
Abstract: One of the major developments within the sociology of education is the recovery of the role of human agency within what had previously been considered to be determining structures. This article looks at one aspect of such agency, namely the meaning production engaged in by a group of largely working‐class students within transition programmes in three secondary schools in New Zealand. Their contestual industry in receiving, reinterpreting, re‐creating and rejecting meanings provides valid spaces in which critical and conscientising education can occur. It is argued, however, that this same activity hardly warrants the optimism evident in contemporary educational discourse relating progressive change at the micro‐level of the school to changes in the larger social formation. Some of the factors which subvert the transformative potential of contestual and resistant activity are therefore explored.
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TL;DR: The notion of self-ownership has been criticised as a logical extension of the right to personal integrity and autonomy as mentioned in this paper, and it has been shown that it is not compatible with the ethical ideal of competitive equality of opportunity.
Abstract: and then to talk about their preferences, and then to talk about the resources placed at the disposal of the persons in order to fulfill their preferences. This form of anthropological and ethical compartmentalization so common in some branches of political philosophy is liable to fail under almost any worthwhile test.28 But is the contrary, or "holistic," conception of the person and his preferences and resources any better? For while the compartmentalized argument appears to afford the individual person no rights over the attributes of his person until some benign (or malignant) agency ascribes them to him, thereby offending some of our most basic intuitions about personal liberty, the holistic argument appears, on the contrary, to assume limitless and inviolable rights of the self in the person. And that instantly offends our egalitarian sensibilities. But neither conclusion is necessary. And neither conclusion either validates or invalidates the ethical ideal of competitive equality of opportunity. To appreciate this point, consider the ethical inversion of the theory of equality of talents. Consider the theory of self-ownership. One of the most common claims made for the rights of the individual person over the attributes of his bodily person is the right to self-ownership, that is, the right to enjoy the fruits of one's own faculties, both of body and of mind. That right, or projected right, is, according to its protagonists, merely a logical extension of the right to personal integrity and autonomy, 28. See Sher, Desert, pp. 154-59, for a most subtle critique of this form of philosophical
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TL;DR: The notion of unredistributable corporate moral responsibility (UCMR) has been criticised by as mentioned in this paper, who argue that if bad intentions cannot be demonstrated, corporations and their managers are not blame-worthy, while liberals may insist that the results of corporate actions were predictable and so somebody must be to blame.
Abstract: Certain cases of corporate action seem especially resistant to a shared moral evaluation. Conservatives may argue that if bad intentions cannot be demonstrated, corporations and their managers are not blame-worthy, while liberals may insist that the results of corporate actions were predictable and so somebody must be to blame. Against this background, the theory that sometimes a corporation's moral responsibility cannot be redistributed, even in principle, to the individuals involved, seems quite attractive. This doctrine of unredistributable corporate moral responsibility (UCMR) is, however, ultimately indefensible. I show this in several steps. After first locating UCMR in the context of the evolving debate about corporate moral agency, the paper reexamines cases cited in defense of UCMR and takes up the attempt to defend it by identifying corporate moral agency with corporate practices. A further section explores the claim that UCMR is a convention distinct from, yet compatible with, traditional “natural” notions of responsibility. The final section develops a notion of combined akratic agency to provide an alternate explanation, compatible with rejection of UCMR, of the phenomena which make the doctrine attractive.
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TL;DR: The moral grounds for voluntary cooperation with the tax collection agency turn out, on close scrutiny, to be surprisingly narrow as discussed by the authors, and these moral grounds also contain one important exception. But would such appeals be justified in some philosophical, as opposed to economic or psychological, sense?
Abstract: Some evidence suggests that certain taxpayers might increase their “voluntary” compliance with the tax laws if presented with the right “moral appeals.” If such appeals were relatively inexpensive, compared to hiring more auditors, say, even small improvements in compliance would justify such efforts. However, would such appeals be “justified” in some philosophical, as opposed to economic or psychological, sense? The moral grounds for voluntary cooperation with the tax collection agency turn out, on close scrutiny, to be surprisingly narrow. Though firm, these moral grounds also contain– arguably, at least–one important exception.
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01 Apr 1989TL;DR: Rational psychology is the conceptual investigation of psychology by means of the most fit mathematical concepts as discussed by the authors, and it is a conceptual approach that is closely associated with artificial intelligence and cognitive science, but it should not be confused with logic-based presentations of artificial intelligence.
Abstract: Rational psychology is the conceptual investigation of psychology by means of the most fit mathematical concepts Several practical benefits should accrue from its recognition SOME PROBLEMS closely associated with t,hose of artificial intelligence and cognitive science seem unduly neglected in light of the possible benefits of their investigation. Thcsc are the problems of investigating theories and techniques of natural and artificial psychologies by means of t,he most fit mathematical concepts. The term “rational psychology” labels this investigation. Rational psychology should not, be confused with logic-based presentations of artificial intelligence. While investigations based on mathematical logic are relatively familiar and certainly useful, using only that portion of mathematics to characterize psychologies presupposes that psychological questions are fundamentally logical. That presupposition is not, ncccssary for the development of an exact science of mind. To urge the broader view, the fol@ Copyright 1983 by
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01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The role of the individual in history: the theory of agency and community and individuality is discussed in this paper, where the authors re-read the story of MARX'S THEORIES of human nature 'EMPIRICally'.
Abstract: Acknowledgements - Introduction - PART 1 RE-READING MARX FOR THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE PSYCHE - New Grundrisse for the Levels of Analysis Problem - PART 2 HUMAN NATURE AS MODIFIED IN EACH HISTORICAL EPOCH - Community and Individuality: The Theory of 'Individuation' - The Role of 'The Individual' in History: the Theory of Agency - PART 3 HUMAN NATURE IN GENERAL - Introduction - Needs and Wants - Responses to Gratification and Deprivation - Knowledge - A General Psychology of Intergroup Relations - PART 4 EVALUATING MARX'S THEORIES OF HUMAN NATURE 'EMPIRICALLY' - Introduction - Individuation and Agency Revisited - How 'General' is 'Human Nature'? - Conclusion - Index
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TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of moral hazard on capital budgeting is examined, and it is shown that moral hazard may change project rankings based on net present value under perfect information.
Abstract: In this paper, the effect of moral hazard on capital budgeting is examined. It is shown that moral hazard may change project rankings based on net present value under perfect information. It is also shown that in certain agency relationships moral hazard increases managerial contracting costs more for projects with slower paybacks, thus producing a bias in favor of projects with faster paybacks. This effect manifests itself only under specific conditions.
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TL;DR: The nature of knowledge is changing under the impact of IT and ODL, as the Renaissance and subsequent scientific revolution replaced divine revelation with personal human speculation, conjecture and refutation; the current proliferation of new technology is replacing the agency of human speculation with a kind of impersonal, disembodied, free‐floating, public dissemination of information.
Abstract: Open and distance learning (ODL) technology offers a new form of market mechanism for the distribution of knowledge which is increasingly presented as a commodity like any other. Information technology (IT) is also having an impact on the technical and social production of knowledge and higher learning in general. This paper will explore a range of issues arising from this ‘mercantilization’ of learning, by which is meant the tendency for knowledge and learning to be seen as products, skills and competencies produced for sale by what Berger (1987) has called the ‘knowledge industry’ The paper argues that the nature of knowledge is changing under the impact of IT and ODL, as, for example, the Renaissance and subsequent scientific revolution replaced divine revelation with personal human speculation, conjecture and refutation; the current proliferation of new technology is replacing the agency of human speculation with a kind of impersonal, disembodied, free‐floating, public dissemination of information. It...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider and criticize the following position: a community is entitled to uphold and enforce its own distinctive mores, norms, and standards through the agency of the law, even though this enforcement may seem undesirable from the wider point of view of liberal morality or moral philosophy.
Abstract: In this paper I consider and criticize the following position: a community is entitled to uphold and enforce its own distinctive mores, norms, and standards through the agency of the law, even though this enforcement may seem undesirable from the wider point of view of liberal morality or moral philosophy. According to this view, which is often labeled "communitarianism," a community is entitled to do this for the sake of its own moral and cultural particularity, and in order to preserve its unique identity, its boundaries and its heritage.
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The conception de la citoyennete chez H. Arendt as discussed by the authors for sa relation a : la sphere publique, l'action politique et l'identite collective, la culture politique
Abstract: La conception de la citoyennete chez H. Arendt pour sa relation a : la sphere publique, l'action politique et l'identite collective, la culture politique
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01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss two doctrines essential to Reid's account of agency and of causation, namely, that only beings with will and understanding can exercise active power and that there must be an efficient cause for everything that comes into existence.
Abstract: I shall be concerned here with two doctrines which are essential to Reid’s account of agency and of causation. The first, expounded at some length in AP I, v, is that, so far as we can tell, only beings with will and understanding can exercise active power. The second, avowed at many points in Reid’s writings, is that there must be an efficient cause for everything that comes into existence. Since Reid believes that only a being that exercises active power can truly be called a cause, these doctrines taken together have far reaching consequences in metaphysics, in the philosophy of science and in the philosophy of religion, as well as in the theory of action. They imply that material things cannot be genuinely active and thus cannot be regarded as causes in the truest sense of the word. Conversely only spiritual beings can be efficient causes and everything which happens must result ultimately from the agency of God, of man or of some other such being.
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TL;DR: For example, this article argued that the categories of social behavior in use today in empirical research are at least partly a product of ideologies that have been dominant in relevant population subgroups.
Abstract: There is a fundamental paradox for research that is traditionally described as "empirical." The ostensible purpose of this research is to learn something by observation. Yet, as Trubek and Esser emphasize, observation cannot be objective or value free. There are two related problems that render all observation inherently value laden. Description of the social world requires that we group discrete phenomena into categories that we believe, or are trained to believe, describe significant social happenings. In our language we describe these categories with a single word, and come to think of them as a single phenomenon, rather than the grouping of discrete phenomena that could have been grouped in some other way. Thus, we talk of disputes, and we are trained to think of a marital spat and resistance by an enterprise to an environmental protection agency's order as related social phenomena. But we do not think of the question whether Ivan Lendl or Mats Wilander is the world's best tennis player as related, because we are not trained to describe this as a "dispute." Consistently, the process by which the latter question gets resolved we call a "game" rather than "disputes processing." The categories we use today were created by our forebears, and they commonly reflect preferences about how society should be organized that were widely shared in the culture in which they were created. In Trubek and Esser's terminology, the categories of social behavior in use today in empirical research are at least partly a product of ideologies that have been dominant in relevant population subgroups.'
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TL;DR: The concept of the perfect agent has been used in the context of action and agency in the Church as discussed by the authors, where it is claimed that there is a perfect agent who never fails, who accomplishes all and everything he sets out to do.
Abstract: Human agents, unless they be crazed by some impediment of mind, are usually all too painfully aware of the risks inherent in their task of exercising agency. We are vulnerable as we act to forces not fully within our control, to unsound judgements which we ourselves make, and to the limits of our own reach which we sometimes miss or ignore. However, it is common enough in orthodox Christian circles, when transposing the concepts of action and agency to the divine, to remove the element of risk which so closely accompanies our own experience of action. God, it is claimed, is the perfect agent – who never fails – who accomplishes all and everything he sets out to do.
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TL;DR: A consideration of whether infertility is a disease was an important conceptual starting point, and religious perspectives were reviewed as possible sources of moral and ethical insight in the report, Infertility: Medical and Social Choices.
Abstract: A wide range of conflicting established moral viewpoints makes development of public policy related to infertility difficult. Where there are pluralities of viewpoints and no single established moral approach, uniform solutions are questionable. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), is a nonpartisan analytic support agency that serves the United States Congress by providing objective analyses of major public policy issues related to scientific and technological change. Because analysis of ethical issues is an important part of technology assessment, OTA included a thematic analysis of ethical issues in the report, Infertility: Medical and Social Choices. A consideration of whether infertility is a disease was an important conceptual starting point, and religious perspectives were reviewed as possible sources of moral and ethical insight.
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TL;DR: Although often admitted only reluctantly, and at times even denied, nevertheless the inescapable reality is that the public library, as a public agency, functions within a political context as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Although often admitted only reluctantly, and at times even denied, nevertheless the inescapable reality is that the public library, as a public agency, functions within a political context. But the external political system within which the public library must operate is not the only political system that bears upon it. There is also a political system at work within the library, as a result of the need that it govern itself, and the inevitability of occasional conflict. It is imperative that the librarian be aware of the existence of the internal political system, and function effectively within it.
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TL;DR: The American Bible Society's founders conceived the organization in 1816 as a traditional missionary moral reform agency as discussed by the authors, but by the mid-nineteenth century, the ABS more closely resembled a modern national nonprofit corporate bureaucracy.
Abstract: The American Bible Society's founders conceived the organization in 1816 as a traditional missionary moral reform agency. By the mid-nineteenth century, the ABS more closely resembled a modern national nonprofit corporate bureaucracy. Important changes in institutional recordkeeping accompanied and reinforced this change in mission. Increasingly, ABS field agents and employees were discouraged from presenting rich narrative reports, and were required to quantify their work into narrow statistical compilations. Recordkeeping case studies, sensitive to the broader process of institutionalization, can contribute to bureaucratization theory, expose institutional power relationships, and help archivists better appraise the informational value and limitations of their collections.
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01 Jan 1989TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that to intend one's conduct or its consequences presupposes knowledge of relevant circumstances and of causal connections, and that both strong and weak intentionality require foresight of consequences, either as possible or as practically certain.
Abstract: For all that intentional action is the paradigmatic form of mens rea, knowledge and foresight rival it as crucial elements of responsible agency. To intend one’s conduct or its consequences presupposes knowledge of relevant circumstances and of causal connections. So too, both strong and weak intentionality require foresight of consequences, either as possible or as practically certain. Although to know and foresee is not to intend, to intend is to know and foresee.
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01 Jan 1989TL;DR: Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals as mentioned in this paper is the most significant work of moral philosophy after Aristotle, and one of the most puzzling, and it is difficult to make sense of its multiple transitions between distinct frameworks of argument.
Abstract: Recently Bernard Williams described Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals as “the most significant work of moral philosophy after Aristotle, and one of the most puzzling.”1 This seems to me right on both counts. The puzzles would be fewer if we had a strategy for reading the entire Groundwork and making sense of its multiple transitions between distinct frameworks of argument. One central strategic task is to make sense of Kant’s account of action and agency. He discusses agency under various headings — including willing, rational willing, and freedom — throughout the work. The discussion is complex not only because of this variety of headings, but still more because it is conducted in three distinct frameworks, and because the transitions between these coincide only approximately with the transitions between chapters. The first chapter analyses our common account of morality and claims that it centres on the idea of good willing; the second chapter undertakes a metaphysics of morals by analysing good willing in terms of an abstract account of rational willing as such; the last chapter (in the sections from 450 onwards) argues from the perspective of a critique of reason that rational willing is free and yet compatible with the causality of nature.