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Causal determinants, reasons, and substantive autonomy: A critical approach to agency
Date
2007-01-01
Author
Baç, Mutlu Murat
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Although the notion of agency presents itself as an attractive solution to the puzzle of free will, it faces a problem vis-a-vis the nature of reasons that are purported to lie behind actions. In this paper I first point out the significance of a paradigm shift that emerges with the agency view. Then I argue that the agency theories nonetheless fail in general to give a satisfactory account of various sorts of reasons underlying our actions and choices. In trying to enlighten the multi-faceted nature of actions and agency, I define a novel concept, "substantive autonomy," and claim that it is a basic fact valid for all animals, not only humans, that are capable of initiating action. Reasons may indeed be lying behind our actions in a non-deterministic and ubiquitous manner but agency often works in the absence of sophisticated (discursive) reasons which are evidently characteristic of humans.
Subject Keywords
Agency
,
Event causation
,
Free will
,
Reasons
,
Substantive autonomy
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/54443
Journal
PROBLEMOS
Collections
Department of Philosophy, Article
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M. M. Baç, “Causal determinants, reasons, and substantive autonomy: A critical approach to agency,”
PROBLEMOS
, pp. 135–144, 2007, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/54443.