Agency

'''Agency '''

definition          To be included after submission of exams.

discussion        David Crocker on Amartya Sen’s notion of agency: “One is an agent when one deliberates and decides for oneself, acts to realize one’s aims, and, thereby, makes some intentional difference in the world. Depending on the traits of a person, for example whether they are cognitively impaired, a person has more or less agency” (Crocker 2008:298).

                             “Agency and well-being are, for Sen, two fundamental and irreducible normative dimensions of being human. Sometimes the two coincide, as when I decide and act to protect or advance my own well-being or when I make my own self-interest or passivity the only thing that matters. But agency and well-being can also diverge: a hunger striker or soldier risks his well-being (a component of which is his happiness) when what he chooses as a higher cause may result in a lessening or destruction of his well-being” (Crocker 2008:127).