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Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the distribution between what is inert object and what is made of talking subjects does not do justice to science nor to literature nor, of course, to politics, and an effort to describe a relation with agency that focuses not on their characters (humans or nonhumans, animated or deanimated) but rather on their common source is made.
Abstract: Among the many problems raised by political ecology is one of language. The distribution between what is inert object and what is made of talking subjects does not do justice to science nor to literature—nor, of course, to politics. Hence, an effort to describe a relation with agency that focuses not on their characters (humans or nonhumans, animated or deanimated) but rather on their common source. This source is recognized here—both semiotically and then ontologically—as a “metaphorphic zone.” It is just such a common articulation that could allow speaking with and about former “facts of nature” in a different way, a way better adjusted to the new political situation.

535 citations


BookDOI
04 Apr 2014
TL;DR: Cote and Levine as discussed by the authors provide an extensive understanding of identity formation as it relates to human striving (agency) and social organization (culture) and provide a concise synthesis of state-of-the-art psychological and sociological theory and research.
Abstract: The goal of Identity, Formation, Agency, and Culture is to lay the basis of a theory with which to better understand the difficulties and complexities of identity formation. It provides an extensive understanding of identity formation as it relates to human striving (agency) and social organization (culture). James E. Cote and Charles G. Levine have compiled state-of-the-art psychological and sociological theory and research into a concise synthesis. This volume utilizes a vast, interdisciplinary literature in a reader-friendly style. Playing the role of narrators, the authors take readers through the most important theories and studies of self and identity, focusing on pragmatic issues of identity formation--those things that matter most in people's lives. Identity, Formation, Agency, and Culture is intended for identity-related researchers in the behavioral and social sciences, as well as clinicians, counselors, and social workers dealing with identity-related disorders. It also serves as a main or supplemental text in advanced courses on identity, identity and human development, social development, moral development, personality, the sociology of identity, and the individual and society taught in departments of psychology, sociology, human development, and family studies.

481 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the notion of a Global International Relations (Global IR) that transcends the divide between the West and the Rest of the World, by grounding in world history, integrating the study of regions and regionalisms into the central concerns of IR, avoiding ethnocentrism and exceptionalism irrespective of source and form, and recognizing a broader conception of agency with material and ideational elements that includes resistance, normative action, and local constructions of global order.
Abstract: The discipline of International Relations (IR) does not reflect the voices, experiences, knowledge claims, and contributions of the vast majority of the societies and states in the world, and often marginalizes those outside the core countries of the West With IR scholars around the world seeking to find their own voices and reexamining their own traditions, our challenge now is to chart a course toward a truly inclusive discipline, recognizing its multiple and diverse foundations This article presents the notion of a “Global IR” that transcends the divide between the West and the Rest The first part of the article outlines six main dimensions of Global IR: commitment to pluralistic universalism, grounding in world history, redefining existing IR theories and methods and building new ones from societies hitherto ignored as sources of IR knowledge, integrating the study of regions and regionalisms into the central concerns of IR, avoiding ethnocentrism and exceptionalism irrespective of source and form, and recognizing a broader conception of agency with material and ideational elements that includes resistance, normative action, and local constructions of global order It then outlines an agenda for research that supports the Global IR idea Key element of the agenda includes comparative studies of international systems that look past and beyond the Westphalian form, conceptualizing the nature and characteristics of a post-Western world order that might be termed as a Multiplex World, expanding the study of regionalisms and regional orders beyond Eurocentric models, building synergy between disciplinary and area studies approaches, expanding our investigations into the two-way diffusion of ideas and norms, and investigating the multiple and diverse ways in which civilizations encounter each other, which includes peaceful interactions and mutual learning The challenge of building a Global IR does not mean a one-size-fits-all approach; rather, it compels us to recognize the diversity that exists in our world, seek common ground, and resolve conflicts

438 citations


Book
12 Jun 2014
TL;DR: A new view of logic as a theory of information-driven agency and intelligent interaction between many agents is developed, unifying all these systems, and positioning them at the interface of logic, philosophy, computer science and game theory.
Abstract: This book develops a new view of logic as a theory of information-driven agency and intelligent interaction between many agents - with conversation, argumentation and games as guiding examples. It provides one uniform account of dynamic logics for acts of inference, observation, questions and communication, that can handle both update of knowledge and revision of beliefs. It then extends the dynamic style of analysis to include changing preferences and goals, temporal processes, group action and strategic interaction in games. Throughout, the book develops a mathematical theory unifying all these systems, and positioning them at the interface of logic, philosophy, computer science and game theory. A series of further chapters explores repercussions of the 'dynamic stance' for these areas, as well as cognitive science.

393 citations


Book
30 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors defend a source view and present a Manipulation Argument against Compatibilism and Blame without Basic Desert 7. Free Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior 8. Personal Relationships and Meaning in Life
Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Defending a Source View 2. Problems for Event-Causal and Non-Causal Libertarianisms 3. The Prospects for Agent Causal Libertarianism 4. A Manipulation Argument against Compatibilism 5. Free Will Skepticism and Rational Deliberation 6. Blame without Basic Desert 7. Free Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior 8. Personal Relationships and Meaning in Life Bibliography

358 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article surveys a wide corpus of statements by the Actor–Network position’s leading figures and emphasizes the wider methodological framework in which these statements are embedded.
Abstract: Actor-Network Theory is a controversial social theory. In no respect is this more so than the role it 'gives' to nonhumans: nonhumans have agency, as Latour provocatively puts it. This article aims to interrogate the multiple layers of this declaration to understand what it means to assert with Actor-Network Theory that nonhumans exercise agency. The article surveys a wide corpus of statements by the position's leading figures and emphasizes the wider methodological framework in which these statements are embedded. With this work done, readers will then be better placed to reject or accept the Actor-Network position - understanding more precisely what exactly it is at stake in this decision.

335 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the role of human agency has been under-explored to date in the field of regional economic resilience, and they focus on three key questions: why agency is important in resilience; how agents are organized in complex, regional economies and how they might act; and what an agency perspective means for how resilience might be conceptualized and analysed empirically.
Abstract: Regional resilience: an agency perspective, Regional Studies. This paper argues that in the nascent theorizing and empirical study of regional economic resilience, the role of human agency has been under-explored to date. In seeking to address this gap, the paper focuses on three key questions: why agency is important in resilience; how agents are organized in complex, regional economies and how they might act; and finally, what an agency perspective means for how resilience might be conceptualized and analysed empirically. It is argued that including the human factor in resilience thinking ultimately means that the role of place and context must assume greater significance.

254 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the emerging literature highlighting that morality and sociability make unique contribution to social judgment and that morality has a primary role in the evaluations we make of individuals and groups.
Abstract: Agency and communion are the core dimensions of social judgment as they indicate whether someone's intentions toward us are beneficial or harmful (i.e., communion), and whether they have the ability to fulfil their intentions (i.e., agency). Recent advances have demonstrated that communion encompasses both sociability (e.g., friendliness, likeability) and morality (e.g., honesty, trustworthiness) characteristics. In this article, we review the emerging literature highlighting that morality and sociability make unique contribution to social judgment and that morality has a primary role in the evaluations we make of individuals and groups. We also consider the evidence showing that morality and sociability play distinct roles in the positive evaluation of the individual and group self-concept. We conclude that future research on social judgment should expand the two-dimensional model to the more specific aspects of communion captured in information about morality and sociability.

237 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Sarah E Lamb1
TL;DR: It is argued that the vision offered by the dominant successful aging paradigm is not only a particular cultural and biopolitical model but, despite its inspirational elements, in some ways a counterproductive one.

233 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2014

226 citations


Book ChapterDOI
14 Jul 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the fundamental characteristics of network theory and provide their thoughts on opportunities for future research in social network analysis, and address some previous critiques and controversies surrounding the issues of structure, human agency, endogeneity, tie content, network change and context.
Abstract: Is social network analysis just measures and methods with no theory? We attempt to clarify some confusions, address some previous critiques and controversies surrounding the issues of structure, human agency, endogeneity, tie content, network change, and context, and add a few critiques of our own. We use these issues as an opportunity to discuss the fundamental characteristics of network theory and to provide our thoughts on opportunities for future research in social network analysis.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that awe increases both supernatural belief and intentional-pattern perception—two phenomena that have been linked to agency detection, or the tendency to interpret events as the consequence of intentional and purpose-driven agents.
Abstract: Across five studies, we found that awe increases both supernatural belief (Studies 1, 2, and 5) and intentional-pattern perception (Studies 3 and 4)—two phenomena that have been linked to agency detection, or the tendency to interpret events as the consequence of intentional and purpose-driven agents. Effects were both directly and conceptually replicated, and mediational analyses revealed that these effects were driven by the influence of awe on tolerance for uncertainty. Experiences of awe decreased tolerance for uncertainty, which, in turn, increased the tendency to believe in nonhuman agents and to perceive human agency in random events.

Book
16 Nov 2014
TL;DR: The work of the Onlife initiative as mentioned in this paper explores how the development and widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a radical impact on the human condition and explores how ICTs are not mere tools but rather social forces that are increasingly affecting our self-conception (who we are), our mutual interactions (how we socialise); our conception of reality (our metaphysics); and our interactions with reality (Our agency).
Abstract: What is the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the human condition? In order to address this question, in 2012 the European Commission organized a research project entitled The Onlife Initiative: concept reengineering for rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition. This volume collects the work of the Onlife Initiative. It explores how the development and widespread use of ICTs have a radical impact on the human condition. ICTs are not mere tools but rather social forces that are increasingly affecting our self-conception (who we are), our mutual interactions (how we socialise); our conception of reality (our metaphysics); and our interactions with reality (our agency). In each case, ICTs have a huge ethical, legal, and political significance, yet one with which we have begun to come to terms only recently. The impact exercised by ICTs is due to at least four major transformations: the blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality; the blurring of the distinction between human, machine and nature; the reversal from information scarcity to information abundance; and the shift from the primacy of stand-alone things, properties, and binary relations, to the primacy of interactions, processes and networks. Such transformations are testing the foundations of our conceptual frameworks. Our current conceptual toolbox is no longer fitted to address new ICT-related challenges. This is not only a problem in itself. It is also a risk, because the lack of a clear understanding of our present time may easily lead to negative projections about the future. The goal of The Manifesto, and of the whole book that contextualises, is therefore that of contributing to the update of our philosophy. It is a constructive goal. The book is meant to be a positive contribution to rethinking the philosophy on which policies are built in a hyperconnected world, so that we may have a better chance of understanding our ICT-related problems and solving them satisfactorily. The Manifesto launches an open debate on the impacts of ICTs on public spaces, politics and societal expectations toward policymaking in the Digital Agenda for Europe’s remit. More broadly, it helps start a reflection on the way in which a hyperconnected world calls for rethinking the referential frameworks on which policies are built.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: Dewey as discussed by the authors argues that the agency of learning is found in the primacy of activity, experimentation, and an open-endedness that cannot be left to the child or to the teacher, but which is realized from beyond the closed walls of schooling.
Abstract: While many would assume that child-centered learning is key to education, Dewey turns out to be surprisingly critical of those who invest all education and focus their pedagogy on child-centeredness. Instead, the agency of learning is found in the primacy of activity, experimentation, and an open-endedness that cannot be left to the child or to the teacher, but which is realized from beyond the closed walls of schooling. In valuing the child as an individual who belongs to everyday life, rather than the pupil one receives in the classroom amongst many other children, Dewey leaves no doubt in our mind that he cares for the individuality of the child. This also reveals a major concern in Dewey’s approach to development. His work urges us to be cautious about those claims that somehow assert developmental learning as given and where everyone is expected to “grow”. While some might misread Dewey as imposing on the learner an environment that would ultimately shape her ways of learning, his critique of learner-centeredness does the exact opposite: it recognizes the contradictory nature of learning and extends it to the open horizons of experience. By way of discussing the various aspects of Dewey’s approach to organization, policy making, and the relationship between education and business, this chapter leads to its concluding discussion of what does a pedagogical disposition represent within the open framework of Dewey’s philosophy. Drawing from the experience of Black Mountain College in North Carolina—whose experimental premise was very close to Dewey’s work in Chicago and later in New York—one begins to approach the idea of a pedagogical disposition from two opposite angles. On one end there is the angle of institutional sustainability, which in the case of Black Mountain College would be regarded as a downright disaster given that it lasted for only twenty-four years. On the other end there is a far more important approach, which is concerned with the import of an open-ended understanding of education whose objective embodied a pedagogical disposition that radically relates the school “so intimately to life as to demonstrate the possibility and necessity of such organization for all education”—as Dewey puts it. Those who look at schools from the position of sustainability would jump in and state that a pedagogical disposition as embraced by Black Mountain is never feasible. This prompts a counter-objection: Feasible in terms of what? In terms of the school as an institution which, in order to survive, is ready to waste its community’s potential by narrowing education down to standardized goals? Or feasible in terms of a vision of education that takes risks in order to capture the fullness of associated living?

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Several classes of behavioral and neuroimaging data are reviewed suggesting that earlier processes, linked to fluency of action selection, prospectively contribute to sense of agency, having important implications for better understanding human volition and abnormalities of action experience.
Abstract: Sense of agency refers to the feeling of controlling an external event through one's own action. On one influential view, agency depends on how predictable the consequences of one's action are, getting stronger as the match between predicted and actual effect of an action gets closer. Thus, sense of agency arises when external events that follow our action are consistent with predictions of action effects made by the motor system while we perform or simply intend to perform an action. According to this view, agency is inferred retrospectively, after an action has been performed and its consequences are known. In contrast, little is known about whether and how internal processes involved in the selection of actions may influence subjective sense of control, in advance of the action itself, and irrespective of effect predictability. In this article, we review several classes of behavioral and neuroimaging data suggesting that earlier processes, linked to fluency of action selection, prospectively contribute to sense of agency. These findings have important implications for better understanding human volition and abnormalities of action experience.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, student engagement in higher education is theorised as a form of distributed agency, with the impact of a learning environment on this agency mediated by reflexivity, and the role that social relations play in students' responses to learning specifically offers a means to strengthen the moral basis for education.
Abstract: Student engagement has become problematic following the rise of mass and universal forms of higher education. Significant attention has been devoted to identifying factors that are associated with higher levels of engagement, but it remains the case that the underlying reasons for student engagement and, indeed, the notion itself of ‘student engagement’ remain weakly theorised. In this article, we seek to develop the theoretical basis for student engagement in a way that highlights the student's own contribution. We explore how learning involves students taking responsibility for action in the face of uncertainty, whether in pursuit of personal or communal concerns. Drawing on perspectives primarily from realist social theory, we suggest that student engagement may be shaped by extended, restricted and fractured modes of reflexivity and co-reflexivity. In this way student engagement in higher education is theorised as a form of distributed agency, with the impact of a learning environment on this agency mediated by reflexivity. Reflexivity itself is further influenced by the tasks and social relations encountered by students in a given learning environment. The role that social relations play in students' responses to learning specifically offers a means to strengthen the moral basis for education. Our account provides an explanation as to why specific educational practices, such as those termed ‘high impact’, might lead to higher levels of student engagement within the wider context of a knowledge society. We thus offer insights towards new forms of educational practice and relations that have the potential to engage students more fully.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual framework foregrounding legitimacy is developed based upon new institutional theory for climate change planning in Aarhus Municipality, Denmark, which is used as a case study to validate four propositions derived from existing research but filtered through the conceptual framework.
Abstract: Existing research on climate change planning has tended to adopt an overly simplistic approach to analyzing how agency and structure mediate local governments’ responses to climate change. This research contributes to scientific capacity to predict and explain patterns of climate change planning by focusing on the concept of legitimacy and examining its influence upon the dialectic between structure and agency. A conceptual framework foregrounding legitimacy is developed based upon new institutional theory. An initiative to institutionalize climate change planning in Aarhus Municipality, Denmark, is used as a case study to validate four propositions derived from existing research but filtered through the conceptual framework. Validation of the propositions evidences a hierarchy in the salience of different forms of legitimacy, with moral and ethical arguments for undertaking climate change planning having limited social traction in Denmark in the absence of significant extreme climatic events. The analysis also generates thicker, more nuanced explanations for real-world patterns of climate change planning. The findings thereby provide a corrective to a number of assertions made in the literature, notably in relation to the role of agency in the institutionalization of climate change planning.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Several ways that it could be used in future research are discussed, some as yet unanswered questions that are ripe for interdisciplinary investigation are highlighted, and researchers are encouraged to join the efforts to answer these questions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigate the construction of social licence discourse in mining companies' sustainable development reports and at a recent industry conference and find that the texts mystify the nature of agency, and privilege processes that maintain existing power relations.
Abstract: Large companies must increasingly satisfy not only the conditions of their formal licences, but also the concerns and expectations of host communities and broader society. This has led to the emergence, particularly in the minerals industry, of the notion of “social licence”, an interdiscursive term whose meaning is rarely interrogated. We use textual analysis to critically investigate the construction of social licence discourse in minerals companies’ sustainable development reports and at a recent industry conference. We find that the texts mystify the nature of agency, and privilege processes that maintain existing power relations. Through their partial accommodation of heterogeneous discourses, the texts downplay tensions and conflicts. We conclude that there is a need to reconceptualise the nature of company–stakeholder relationships through a more collaborative, dialogic and reflexive process, avoiding the binary state implied by the term licence.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the nature and conceptual meaning of agency remain ambiguous: agency is a "black box" which while fundamental to youth sociology remains unpacked, does not serve the ethical commitments of a politically engaged discipline.
Abstract: Agency is a conceptual problem for youth studies. While the term is used in many analyses of young people's lives, this paper argues that the nature and conceptual meaning of agency remain ambiguous: agency is a ‘black box’ which while fundamental to youth sociology remains unpacked. Ontological and epistemological confusion about the concept means that appeals to agency in contemporary youth sociology beg the very questions they claim to answer. Nevertheless, the concept has become central to the conceptual and political basis of youth research, coming to stand for practices that are ‘bounded’ by structures and resist existing states of affairs. This limits the explanatory power of theoretical frameworks in youth studies, and does not serve the ethical commitments of a politically engaged discipline. Identifying conceptual and normative problems raised by the way agency is deployed, this paper argues that a conceptually powerful and politically engaged youth sociology must move beyond the problem of agen...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This essay examines the assumptions of green space use underpinning much existing green space and health research and considers opportunities to move the field forward through exploring two often overlooked aspects of individual agency: the influence of shifting life circumstances on personal wellbeing priorities and place practices and the role of personal orientations to nature.

Journal Article
TL;DR: This paper exposes the challenges that HDI raises, organised into three core themes of legibility, agency and negotiability, and presents the HDI agenda to open up a dialogue amongst interested parties in the personal and big data ecosystems.
Abstract: The increasing generation and collection of personal data has created a complex ecosystem, often collaborative but sometimes combative, around companies and individuals engaging in the use of these data. We propose that the interactions between these agents warrants a new topic of study: Human-Data Interaction (HDI). In this paper we discuss how HDI sits at the intersection of various disciplines, including computer science, statistics, sociology, psychology and behavioural economics. We expose the challenges that HDI raises, organised into three core themes of legibility, agency and negotiability, and we present the HDI agenda to open up a dialogue amongst interested parties in the personal and big data ecosystems.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors bring together studies of community from both the New and Old Worlds and examine their various strengths and weaknesses, and suggest that there are three specific difficulties present in the current studies of Community: an underlying subtext which supports modern political notions of community as a timeless form of sociality; a prominent anthropocentric vision of Community as the province purely of human beings; and a failure to fully embrace the role of affect and emotion.
Abstract: This article seeks to bring together studies of community from both the New and Old Worlds and examine their various strengths and weaknesses. Whilst applauding many of the recent developments, particularly the emphasis on communities as the outcome of practice and agency, I suggest that there are three specific difficulties present in the current studies of community: an underlying subtext which supports modern political notions of community as a timeless form of sociality; a prominent anthropocentric vision of community as the province purely of human beings; and a failure to fully embrace the role of affect and emotion. By rethinking communities as assemblages, this article seeks to build on the firm foundations constructed in the last 15 years to present new possibilities for taking this important concept forward.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a longitudinal qualitative research program examining doctoral student, post-PhD researcher and new lecturer experience is situated in an international literature documenting how early career academics learn through experience.
Abstract: Our longitudinal qualitative research program examining doctoral student, post-PhD researcher and new lecturer experience is situated in an international literature documenting how early career academics learn through experience. In common with others, our work is framed within an identity perspective. What makes our view of identity distinct is a biographical focus: emphasizing individual agency; situating academic work within the personal arena; and encompassing transitions across roles. This paper demonstrates how the construct of ‘identity-trajectory' which links a narrative approach with identity construction contributes to understanding how early career academics learn through experience and navigate their journeys.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In a series of experiments Marc Jeannerod revealed that the authors have very little awareness of the details and causes of their actions, but are vividly aware of being in control of their actions and this gives us a sense of responsibility.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Rhetorical theory since the affect turn has developed something of an environmentalist sensibility: the nonhuman world has acquired persuasive energy; agency has been dispersed across individuals,... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Rhetorical theory since the affect turn has developed something of an environmentalist sensibility: the nonhuman world has acquired persuasive energy; agency has been dispersed across individuals, ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the actor-network theory and its usefulness for music historiography is discussed, with a focus on three concerns of music-historical interest: influence, genre, and context.
Abstract: This article offers clarifications and critiques of actor-network theory and its usefulness for music historiography. Reviewing the work of ANT theorists Bruno Latour, Annemarie Mol, and other social theorists (such as Georgina Born and Anna Tsing), the author explains that ANT is a methodology, not a theory. As a general introduction, the author outlines ANT's methodological presuppositions about human and non-human agency, action, ontology, and performance. He then examines how these methodological principles affect three concerns of music-historical interest: influence, genre, and context. In conclusion, he addresses problems related to temporality, critique, and reflexivity. He draws on music-historical examples after 1960: John Cage, the Jazz Composer's Guild, Henry Cow, Iggy Pop, and the Velvet Underground.

Journal ArticleDOI
Andrew Sims1
TL;DR: Pataki's own treatment is remarkable in that it espouses the radical extension of agency (what he calls "intentionalism" as discussed by the authors, where past treatments have largely attempted to cash out psychoanalytic concepts in deflated (or "sub-intentional" terms; and lately even in terms that interface with the sub-personal theories of cognitive science.
Abstract: Wish-fulfillment is a psychoanalytic concept that applies to situations in which some agent with a frustrated desire represents the world as he would like it to be—rather than as it actually is—and in this manner pacifies the desire. This substitution by the agent of his phantasy for a veridical view of what is going on with him and the external world has been thought by psychodynamic theorists since Freud to explain a wide range of phenomena: the content of dreams, psychiatric delusion, religious practices, and so on. In this book Tamas Pataki gives a theory of wish-fulfillment which is meant to unify and explain a range of phenomena that does justice to the original explanatory scope of the concept, from neurosis and delusion to art and religion. Pataki's book shows up against the background of a tradition in analytic philosophy that is generally sympathetic to psychoanalytic ways of thinking about mindedness, and which deploys its resources in order to (i) better understand the patterns of explanation that are given in clinical practice, and the concepts that those explanations employ; and (ii) outline the necessary conditions on any such explanation—to determine what the mind must be like, if psychoanalytic explanation is cogent. One discovery that issues from this kind of analysis is that psychoanalysis constitutes an extension of ordinary psychological explanation. This was first comprehensively argued by Wollheim (1971) and his colleague Hopkins (1982), with later extension and qualifications of that argument by Gardner (1993) and Lacewing (2012). Pataki's own treatment is remarkable in that it espouses the radical extension of agency (what he calls “intentionalism”) where past treatments—like the Bayesian story in Hopkins (2012)—have largely attempted to cash out psychoanalytic concepts in deflated (or “sub-intentional”) terms; and lately even in terms that interface with the sub-personal theories of cognitive science. Pataki is not unaware of the conceptual issues with positing unconscious centers of agency, and gives a closely argued defense of his thesis that the intentional idiom can be applied all the way down. One impressive thing about this book is the way that the author always has an eye on criticisms that might come from mainstream philosophy of cognition; that is not always something that is present in these kinds of discussions. Thus, we get a digression in the fourth chapter on the empirical plausibility of unconscious attention and unconscious intention, in which Pataki discusses recent work in the clinical neuropsychology of anosognosia for hemiplegia. There is in fact an interesting ambivalence toward the neurological explanation of psychopathology that runs its way through the book. Pataki has no problem in showing us that he is well across the relevant literature, particularly that in which psychodynamic theory is applied in a neuroscientific context. He even cites much of this work approvingly. But he is skeptical about the reach of neuroscience when it comes to mental illness. More specifically, he claims that a neurological account of some mental illness cannot constitute a sufficient account of that illness; that is to say that he endorses the indispensability of the Intentional idiom. The grounds for this skepticism lie in a view about mental states according to which the facts on which their contents supervene exceed facts about the brain; and more specifically, that they supervene also on the causal histories and objects of those states. Thus, the Intentional vocabulary of mental states has autonomy from the vocabulary of neural states, and Pataki thinks that this licenses him in making a hard-and-fast distinction between neurological disorders (like Parkinson's) and mental disorders (like schizophrenia). In the latter cases, Pataki maintains, a full account of any particular disorder requires a specification in terms of what the symptoms mean for the patient. Pataki's positive thesis is that wish-fulfillment necessitates the agent creating evidence for himself in order to elicit a particular false belief, and that this evidence-creation is performed intentionally, albeit unconsciously. Pataki gives the compelling example of the exhibitionist who exposes himself to women in order to garner the evidence that his genitals are impressive and important. The shock and outrage of his victims constitutes the evidence for this wished-for state of affairs, and enables the exhibitionist to believe that it is true. But how is this performed without falling into Sartrean paradox? Pataki claims that the right analysis of this intentional wish-fulfillment will show that wish-fulfillment involves the agent becoming engrossed in playing the role of various personations which have distinct constellations of beliefs and desires, and that are activated by the agent in response to certain triggers or anxieties. This activation of personations, which are often derived from representations of first caregivers, constitutes a kind of self-caring that proceeds through the gratification of the agent's frustrated wishes. I feel that there is a possible equivocation in the book between a weak view on which the Intentional idiom is indispensable in the explanation of mental illness, and on a strong view on which it is sometimes sufficient. I also think it may be that the general mechanisms of mental illnesses are best specified in the language of cognitive neuroscience, and that this specification will not require any Intentional supplement. That may not be incompatible with the thesis that some illness-tokens are interpretable in terms of wish-fulfillment, but it may cause problems for the view that illnesses like schizophrenia will always come under a psychoanalytic description. These concerns aside, some of the richest material in the book comes when Pataki is demonstrating the explanatory payoffs of his theory of wish-fulfillment. Indeed, one of the benefits of Pataki's account is that it can illuminate a much wider range of phenomena than is possible if wish-fulfillment is deflated to be a purely causal phenomenon. In the second half of the book Pataki goes on to apply his theory to delusion and self-deception, the psychological origins of religious belief, creative writing, and the insanity defense in jurisprudence. Indeed, it may be that the light that Pataki's theory is able to cast on a wide range of psychological and cultural phenomena leads the reader to bite the bullet and accept that agency goes much deeper than we have traditionally thought to be the case. In any case, this is a deep and interesting book, and although it is in some ways unfashionable in the context of the contemporary literature it is nonetheless quite compelling in the way it presents the case for the centrality of wish-fulfillment in human mindedness.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how human-data interaction sits at the intersection of various disciplines, including computer science, statistics, sociology, psychology and behavioural economics, and expose the challenges that HDI raises, organized into three core themes of legibility, agency and negotiability.
Abstract: The increasing generation and collection of personal data has created a complex ecosystem, often collaborative but sometimes combative, around companies and individuals engaging in the use of these data. We propose that the interactions between these agents warrants a new topic of study: Human-Data Interaction (HDI). In this paper we discuss how HDI sits at the intersection of various disciplines, including computer science, statistics, sociology, psychology and behavioural economics. We expose the challenges that HDI raises, organised into three core themes of legibility, agency and negotiability, and we present the HDI agenda to open up a dialogue amongst interested parties in the personal and big data ecosystems.

Journal ArticleDOI
Joshua Hart1
TL;DR: A cross-section of defensiveness theories and research is examined, highlighting conclusions that can be drawn and areas where conceptual and research problems linger and suggesting that the field needs methodological innovation.
Abstract: According to theories of “psychological defense,” humans are motivated to protect themselves against various types of psychological threat, including death awareness, uncertainty, and other inherently anxiety-provoking experiences. Protective mechanisms include strengthening close relationships; maintaining appraisals of self-worth, accomplishment, and agency; and cultivating meaningful views of the world. Thus, defensiveness theories incorporate research from many areas of psychology (e.g., information-processing biases, attitudes, and interpersonal and intergroup relations), to help explain why people think, feel, and act in the diverse ways that they do. Currently, the study of psychological defense is hindered by contradictory empirical results and a proliferation of theories that make very similar predictions. This article examines a cross-section of defensiveness theories and research, highlighting conclusions that can be drawn and areas where conceptual and research problems linger. It suggests tha...