Changes

Human agency is the capacity for [[human being]]s to make [[choices]] and to impose those choices on the world. It is normally contrasted to [[natural]] [[force]]s, which are causes involving only unthinking [[Determinism|deterministic processes]]. In this respect, agency is subtly distinct from the concept of [[free will]], the philosophical doctrine that our choices are not the product of causal chains, but are significantly free or undetermined. Human agency entails the uncontroversial, weaker claim that humans do in fact make decisions and enact them on the world. How humans come to make decisions, by free choice or other processes, is another issue.

Human agency is the capacity for [[human being]]s to make [[choices]] and to impose those choices on the world. It is normally contrasted to [[natural]] [[force]]s, which are causes involving only unthinking [[Determinism|deterministic processes]]. In this respect, agency is subtly distinct from the concept of [[free will]], the philosophical doctrine that our choices are not the product of causal chains, but are significantly free or undetermined. Human agency entails the uncontroversial, weaker claim that humans do in fact make decisions and enact them on the world. How humans come to make decisions, by free choice or other processes, is another issue.

The capacity of a human to [[act]] as an agent is [[personal]] to that human, though considerations of the outcomes [[flow]]ing from particular acts of human agency for us and others can then be thought to invest a moral component into a given situation wherein an agent has acted, and thus to involve ''moral agency''. If a situation is the consequence of [[human]] [[decision]] making, persons may be under a duty to apply [[value]] [[judgments]] to the consequences of their decisions, and held to be responsible for those decisions. Human agency entitles the observer to ask should this have occurred? in a way that would be nonsensical in circumstances lacking human decisions-makers.

The capacity of a human to [[act]] as an agent is [[personal]] to that human, though considerations of the outcomes [[flow]]ing from particular acts of human agency for us and others can then be thought to invest a moral component into a given situation wherein an agent has acted, and thus to involve ''[[moral agency]]''. If a situation is the consequence of [[human]] [[decision]] making, persons may be under a duty to apply [[value]] [[judgments]] to the consequences of their decisions, and held to be responsible for those decisions. Human agency entitles the observer to ask should this have occurred? in a way that would be nonsensical in circumstances lacking human decisions-makers.

 

==In philosophy==

==In philosophy==

In certain philosophical traditions (particularly those established by [[Hegel]] and [[Marx]]), human agency is a [[collective]], [[historical]] [[dynamic]], rather than a [[function]] arising out of [[individual]] [[behavior]]. Hegel's Geist and Marx's universal class are [[idealist]] and materialist expressions of this [[idea]] of humans treated as social beings, organized to act in concert.

In certain philosophical traditions (particularly those established by [[Hegel]] and [[Marx]]), human agency is a [[collective]], [[historical]] [[dynamic]], rather than a [[function]] arising out of [[individual]] [[behavior]]. Hegel's Geist and Marx's universal class are [[idealist]] and materialist expressions of this [[idea]] of humans treated as social beings, organized to act in concert.