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The Other Side of Agency

Reader, Soran

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Authors

Soran Reader



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.

Citation

Reader, S. (2007). The Other Side of Agency. Philosophy, 82(4), 579-604. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0031819107000162

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Oct 1, 2007
Deposit Date May 23, 2008
Publicly Available Date Feb 11, 2010
Journal Philosophy
Print ISSN 0031-8191
Electronic ISSN 1469-817X
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 82
Issue 4
Pages 579-604
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0031819107000162
Publisher URL http://www.journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PHI

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