Knowledge Tree
agency
Facts (63)
Sources
The function(s) of consciousness: an evolutionary perspective frontiersin.org Nov 25, 2024 11 facts
claimLearning processes that incorporate memory storage and recall are capable of conferring agency on an individual.
referenceThe evolution of agency, defined as the link between conscious contents and behavior, depended on neurocircuitry innovations that made memory responsive to sensations generated by consciousness, according to Lacalli (2023).
claimThe article 'The function(s) of consciousness: an evolutionary perspective' lists 'memory theories of consciousness, agency, phenomenal experience, qualia, species memory' as its keywords.
claimIndividual agency allows an organism to move the time scale of intervention from evolutionary time into real-time, providing an advantage in environments characterized by unpredictable events.
claimTheories that define consciousness as dependent on the emergence of a self posit that selfhood and agency must be learned and achieved, as argued by Marchetti (2022).
claimConsciousness confers an adaptive advantage by transferring agency to the individual, allowing them to respond more rapidly and flexibly to unpredictable events by moving outside the parameters of preprogrammed and non-consciously conditioned behavioral sequences.
claimLacalli argues that any theory of biological consciousness consistent with evolutionary processes must be, at some level, a memory theory of consciousness, because simple conditioning without memory is insufficient to produce consciousness with agency.
claimChanges to action sequences occur on two timescales: evolutionary timescales (generation to generation) when agency resides with evolution, and faster timescales when agency resides with the individual.
claimAgency is defined as the ability to alter a preprogrammed sequence of reflexive actions to change the sequence, rather than referring to an agent as the proximate cause of an action.
claimSimple conditioning processes involving synaptic plasticity without memory are insufficient to confer agency on an individual, according to the analysis by Lacalli (2024).
claimPierson and Trout (2017) define agency in the context of consciousness not as the proximate cause of an action, but as the ability to alter a predetermined sequence of reflexive actions to change an outcome, which equates to volition for the individual.
Complexity and the Evolution of Consciousness | Biological Theory link.springer.com Sep 14, 2022 11 facts
referenceWalter Veit and Heather Browning authored the forthcoming paper 'Life, mind, agency: why Markov blankets fail the test of evolution', to be published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
claimThe Cambrian period marked the emergence of a new animal lifestyle characterized by agency and subjectivity, which Peter Godfrey-Smith describes as a 'different mode of being'.
claimThe major transition of agency allows for whole-body actions to the exclusion of others, which facilitates the evolution of choice.
claimPeter Godfrey-Smith emphasizes agency and subjectivity as central to consciousness, though the author notes these do not constitute a single property.
perspectiveMonica Gagliano argues for the cognitive and behavioral capacities of plants, but the author of this article contends that it is a mistake to fail to recognize that a major transition in agency occurred specifically in the evolution of a distinctively recognizable animal lifestyle.
perspectiveThe author argues that cognitive sciences have shown a partial blindness toward evolutionary considerations regarding agency, often incorrectly treating agency as an all-or-nothing affair.
referenceOkasha (2018) notes that agency in the fields of folk psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology requires a unity of purpose or, at minimum, consistency among goals.
claimArthur Reber identifies the presence of agency in all of life with sentience, a position the author of this article characterizes as an overreaching error.
claimA major transition in agency is defined as the control of an organism’s degrees of freedom to achieve a functional end, such as feeding or directional movement.
claimWalter Veit criticized Samir Okasha's 2018 monograph on agency for failing to adequately address the actual evolution of agency as a real phenomenon in nature.
claimSome scientists and philosophers, including Trestman (2013), Feinberg and Mallatt (2016), Godfrey-Smith (2016), and Ginsburg and Jablonka (2019), have suggested that subjectivity, agency, and other capacities related to consciousness may provide a partial explanation for the Cambrian explosion.
The cross-cultural study of mind and behaviour: a word of caution link.springer.com Apr 8, 2022 9 facts
claimThe Ngöbe people attribute agency to inanimate entities such as plants, oceans, and heavenly bodies, and believe communication can be entertained with them.
perspectiveThe author argues that the Ngöbe people are mistaken in attributing agency to inanimate entities like plants, oceans, and heavenly bodies, comparing this error to historical Western misconceptions such as the belief that the sun revolves around the earth or that acquired characteristics are inheritable.
quoteOjalehto et al. (2020: 17) state: 'folkcommunication provides a broad framework for conceptualizing agency as a capacity to relate with others and the environment, linked to inferences about life and vitality.'
claimOjalehto and her associates argue that agency and animacy are properties of relationships rather than properties of the mind as typically understood by Westerners.
claimOjalehto and her collaborators argue that animism should be viewed through the lens of 'folk-communication'—a framework conceptualizing agency as a capacity to relate with others and the environment—rather than 'folk-psychology', which involves the attribution of mental states to non-human entities.
claimThe capacity to attribute agency or minds (Theory of Mind) differs from the cultural definitions of which specific entities are objects of that attribution.
quoteOjalehto et al. (2020: 19) state: 'The essential difference between Ngöbe and US stances on agency lies in their conceptual prototypes (using humans rather than ecological actors as the reference point for agency) and grounding principles (psychology or communication) rather than a difference in anthropomorphism, counterintuitive-ness, scientific compatibility, or supernaturalism.'
claimOjaletho and her colleagues have suggested that plants may possess agency.
perspectiveOne could argue that both anthropomorphism and ecocentrism are equally fallacious ways of attributing agency.
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org 6 facts
referenceTankersley, Stowe, and Huettel (2007) found that altruism is associated with an increased neural response to agency, as published in Nature Neuroscience.
referenceFarrer et al. (2003) conducted a positron emission tomography study to modulate the experience of agency, titled 'Modulating the experience of agency: a positron emission tomography study' published in Neuroimage.
referenceTsakiris, Longo, and Haggard (2010) investigated the neural signatures of agency and body-ownership, distinguishing between having a body and moving one's body, in the journal Neuropsychologia.
referenceRuby and Decety (2001) conducted a PET investigation on the effect of subjective perspective taking during the simulation of action, focusing on agency.
claimThe precuneus is involved in contexts involving a first-person perspective (FPP), visuo-spatial imagery, execution and preparation of motor behavior, episodic memory retrieval, and agency, as noted by Cavanna and Trimble (2006).
claimTranscranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) or lesions of the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) disrupt the sense of ownership or agency.
Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 13, 2017 3 facts
referenceJohn Doris authored the book 'Talking to Ourselves: Reflection, Ignorance, and Agency', published by Oxford University Press in 2015.
claimLucy O'Brien analyzed Richard Moran's views on agency and self-knowledge in her 2003 article 'Moran on Agency and Self-Knowledge' published in the European Journal of Philosophy.
referenceMonima Chadha discussed the 'no-self' concept and the phenomenology of agency in her 2017 paper 'No-Self and the Phenomenology of Agency'.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 3 facts
perspectiveHedda Hassel Mørch advocates for a view of panpsychism arguing that the only causal powers we can positively conceive of are mental properties, specifically those involving volition, motivation, or agency.
claimContinuism does not necessarily imply that the universe is a coherent subject with agency or intelligence, as it could be a mindless field of experience.
claimThe 'argument from the experience of causation' posits that our direct experience of our own agency serves as the only positively conceivable model for the intrinsic nature of physical causation, implying that all relations in the world involve a phenomenal aspect.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 3 facts
perspectiveCritics argue that if agency is defined as collapsing brain states without influencing the outcome, the role of consciousness is limited to a passive 'rolling of the dice' where outcomes are random.
claimDual-aspect monists may argue that causal powers are not mysterious because humans experience them in mental contexts, such as the experience of agency and motivation.
claimEpiphenomenalist dualism faces objections regarding its conflict with the human sense of will and agency.
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu Nov 30, 2004 3 facts
claimBriegel (2012) posits that agents develop agency by achieving a form of independence from their environment and the deterministic laws that govern it.
referenceThe quantum approach to agency proposed by Briegel and Müller is based on 'projective simulation,' a quantum algorithm for reinforcement learning in neural networks developed by Paparo et al. (2012), which is considered a variant of quantum machine learning as defined by Wittek (2014).
claimBriegel and Müller (2015) and Müller and Briegel (2018) proposed a quantum approach to understanding agency, intention, and other philosophy of mind topics.
Life, Intelligence, and Consciousness: A Functional Perspective longnow.org Aug 27, 2025 2 facts
claimIf intelligence, consciousness, and agency are defined as properties inherent to life, then computers cannot be intelligent, conscious, or possess agency because they are not alive, regardless of the functions they exhibit.
perspectiveMany members of the European and American intelligentsia argue that terms such as 'intelligence,' 'learning,' 'understanding,' 'agency,' and 'consciousness' should not be applied to artificial neural networks without qualification.
Self-Consciousness - Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science oecs.mit.edu Jul 24, 2024 2 facts
claimThe neo-Lockean view of bodily awareness posits that the sense of ownership coincides with the extent of direct, personal concern and is closely tied to agency, as proposed by De Vignemont in 2018.
referenceAutobiographical memory and agency play a role in self-consciousness, as discussed by Campbell (1994).
Not Minds, but Signs: Reframing LLMs through Semiotics - arXiv arxiv.org Jul 1, 2025 1 fact
claimBy analyzing different framings generated by LLMs, students and researchers can interrogate the ideological underpinnings of discourse, identifying how meaning is shaped by assumptions about agency, value, responsibility, and normativity.
The Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visionary Experiences - Frontiers frontiersin.org Sep 27, 2017 1 fact
claimNatural selection favored the over-detection of agency because the cost of false positives is lower than the high costs associated with the failure to detect predators.
Developing youth work: Chapter 5 - Beyond social education infed.org 1 fact
perspectiveUnderstanding the relationship between agency and social structure is an essential educational aim and a necessary preliminary to making interventions in educational practice.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 1 fact
claimCosmopsychists hold that the universe has some kind of experience, but they may refrain from attributing thought or agency to the universe, similar to how micropsychists hold that electrons have experience but not thought.
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 1 fact
claimConscious systems and conscious mental states involve diverse forms of unity, including causal unities related to the integration of action and control into a unified focus of agency, and representational or intentional unities involving the integration of diverse content at various scales.
Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Aug 19, 2003 1 fact
claimTreating aspects of agency as mere awareness of bodily actions aligns with a Humean philosophical position.
Measurement of diets that are healthy, environmentally sustainable ... frontiersin.org 1 fact
claimResearchers (cited as 7, 38–42) identify equity, social values, child labor, social justice, gender equality, solidarity networks, farmworker justice, agency, dignity in food traditions, animal welfare, and inclusivity as important conceptual constructs for discussing the impacts of dietary and food system transitions.
Rethinking personhood and agency: how AI challenges human ... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Jan 9, 2026 1 fact
perspectiveThe authors of the article 'Rethinking personhood and agency: how AI challenges human...' propose that the distinctive contribution of psychology in the age of artificial intelligence is to analyze how concepts of agency and personhood function in lived experience.
Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness and the Intermediate ... frontiersin.org Apr 17, 2018 1 fact
claimEmbodiment allows AI scholars to emphasize the physical nature of agency, though this does not imply that the body is the only constituent of an agent.
Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution frontiersin.org 1 fact
referenceCurry (2010) discussed the negotiation of antinomies in divination, specifically focusing on embodiment, alterity, and agency, in the book 'Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium'.