Topic
Agency (philosophy)
About: Agency (philosophy) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10461 publications have been published within this topic receiving 350831 citations. The topic is also known as: Thought & Human agency.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore four features commonly presented as fundamental to personhood in versions of the agential conception: action, capability, choice and independence, and argue that such non-agential features are as apt to be constitutive of personhood as agential features.
Abstract: In our philosophical tradition and our wider culture, we tend to think of persons as agents. This agential conception is flattering, but in this paper I will argue that it conceals a more complex truth about what persons are. In 1. I set the issues in context. In 2. I critically explore four features commonly presented as fundamental to personhood in versions of the agential conception: action, capability, choice and independence. In 3. I argue that each of these agential features presupposes a non-agential feature: agency presupposes patiency, capability presupposes incapability, choice presupposes necessity and independence presupposes dependency. In 4. I argue that such non-agential features, as well as being implicit within the agential conception, are as apt to be constitutive of personhood as agential features, and in 5. I conclude.
69 citations
TL;DR: The results imply that both the strength and structure of a person's motives account for moral behavior.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to (a) identify which of recent history's influential figures did and which did not personify moral excellence, and (b) to examine the motives that drove these individuals along such divergent paths. In Study 1, 102 social scientists evaluated the moral qualities of influential figures from Time Magazine's lists. In Study 2, we selected the 15 top ranking of these figures to comprise a moral exemplar group and the bottom 15 to comprise a comparison group of similarly influential people. We measured the motivational aspects of their personality (agency and communion) by content-analyzing extant speeches and interviews. Moral exemplars exhibited the hierarchical integration of agency and communion by treating agentic motives as a means to an end of communal motives. Comparison subjects, by contrast, personified unmitigated agency by treating motives of agency as both a means to an end and an end unto itself. These results imply that both the strength and structure of a person's motives account for moral behavior.
69 citations
TL;DR: The authors report upon the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of a small number of semi-structured interviews, conducted with persons engaging in either recreational drug-use (primarily identified here as Ecstasy-users) or dangerous sports, and draw attention to the distinctions between their rational and contextual reconstructions of risky decisions.
Abstract: This article reports upon the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of a small number of semi-structured interviews, conducted with persons engaging in either recreational drug-use (primarily identified here as Ecstasy-users) or dangerous sports (primarily identified here as bungee-jumpers). Our analysis focuses upon the manner in which these participants make sense of their initiation and maintenance experiences, and the means by which they understand and make sense of risk. In particular, we draw attention to the distinctions between our participants' rational and contextual reconstructions of risky decisions. These distinctions indicate that our participants are able to draw upon a complex cultural and relational understanding of risk and pleasure, and are thus able to deal quite effectively with the contradictory experience of taking 'non-volitional' action. This exploration of persons' strategies for displacing agency in relation to potentially negative outcomes may have implications for research and practice in related areas.
69 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that qualitative research that focuses attention on how change is being understood and experienced on the ground can contribute to broader theoretical insights, and they present a critical realist analysis of the significance of agency as developed by Margaret Archer.
Abstract: In this article I argue that qualitative research that focuses attention on how change is being understood and experienced on the ground can contribute to broader theoretical insights. In recent research I have been exploring how lecturers apply their understandings of learning outcomes and personal development planning. At one level, these practices are mundane, yet they are subject to increased regulation, policy debate and scrutiny. In understanding macro-level changes, as well as deconstructing policy rhetoric, we need theoretical work that pays attention to the exercise of agency at the micro-level. The article presents a critical realist analysis of the significance of agency as developed by Margaret Archer. The argument for the importance of detailed analysis of mundane practices is then elaborated in the analysis of specific examples. The conclusions are not based on privileging a particular method. Rather, I argue that, in theorising about teaching and learning, and change in higher education, we...
69 citations
TL;DR: The past decades have seen a broadening of critical masculinity studies, where terms like the metrosexual, and frameworks like hegemonic masculinity have become staples in the study of men as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The past decades have seen a broadening of critical masculinity studies, where terms like the metrosexual, and frameworks like hegemonic masculinity have become staples in the study of men. Althoug...
69 citations