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agency

English translation: reason for being, capacity to act...

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:agency
Selected answer:reason for being, capacity to act...
Entered by: Yvonne Gallagher

10:09 Jan 7, 2017
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase: agency
Hello everyone,

Each of us was here at that moment of the big bang, when the massive expansion of a singularity gave rise to all that was to come. We were here when, a split second later, the big bang gave rise to the quantum vacuum, space, time, and the Higgs field. We were here when that first fluctuation of the Vacuum, the “wrinkle in time,” gave rise to mass and energy and gravity, and when these then gave rise to a fiery plasma and cosmic radiation. We were here with the creation of particles and forces, stars and planets, and none of these is truly inanimate, none wholly without some primitive form of ***agency***, volition, and sense of direction, even a sense of purpose. As quantum physicist David Bohm says, “Even the electron is informed with a certain level of mind.”

Does agency mean action here? Or does it imply an agent (meaning some outside force/factor)?

Thank you.
Mikhail Korolev
Local time: 07:34
reason for being, capacity to act...
Explanation:
...of the particles and forces, stars and planets

and volition is the drive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy)

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Note added at 4 days (2017-01-12 10:08:02 GMT) Post-grading
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Glad to have helped
Selected response from:

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 05:34
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Gallagy.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +4a driving force
Jack Doughty
4 +1reason for being, capacity to act...
Yvonne Gallagher
3 +1Organisation, rules, power
Philippe ROUSSEAU
3 +1acting person/being
Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón
4capacity to act on itself and other things
B D Finch


  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
a driving force


Explanation:
Some kind of intelligent "will" or "mind" to cause it to behave in a certain way.

Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:34
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 370

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  writeaway
3 hrs
  -> Thank you.
agree  Edith Kelly
3 hrs
  -> Thank you.
agree  Yasutomo Kanazawa
5 hrs
  -> Thank you.
agree  Ashutosh Mitra
22 hrs
  -> Thank you.
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14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Organisation, rules, power


Explanation:
I'd rather say organisation because if agency can mean rules or power, too, both implicate organisation, considered that it is spoken here about primitive times.

Philippe ROUSSEAU
France
Local time: 06:34
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  acetran
1 day 3 hrs
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
acting person/being


Explanation:
Mi proposal.

Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón
Mexico
Local time: 23:34
Native speaker of: Spanish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  acetran
22 hrs
  -> Gracias Acetran!
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6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
capacity to act on itself and other things


Explanation:
"In economics, psychology, social cybernetics, sociology and philosophy, agency is the capacity of an actor (a person or other entity, human or any living being in general, or soul-consciousness in religion) to act in any given environment. The capacity to act does not at first imply a specific moral dimension to the ability to make the choice to act, and moral agency is therefore a distinct concept. In sociology, an agent is an individual engaging with the social structure. Notably, though, the primacy of social structure vs. individual capacity with regard to persons' actions is debated within sociology. This debate concerns, at least partly, the level of reflexivity an agent may possess.

Agency may either be classified as unconscious, involuntary behavior, or purposeful, goal directed activity (intentional action). An agent typically has some sort of immediate awareness of their physical activity and the goals that the activity is aimed at realizing. In ‘goal directed action’ an agent implements a kind of direct control or guidance over their own behavior."
Wilson, George; Shpall, Samuel (4 April 2012). "Action". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, quoted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy)

B D Finch
France
Local time: 06:34
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 192

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Yvonne Gallagher: this was already given above along with link
1 day 19 hrs
  -> I thought "on itself and other things" was important. I tend to agree with Terry's comment about it being "nonsense".
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
reason for being, capacity to act...


Explanation:
...of the particles and forces, stars and planets

and volition is the drive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 days (2017-01-12 10:08:02 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Glad to have helped

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 05:34
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 659
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Gallagy.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Terry Richards: This seems closest to what the author meant. Even though it's nonsense :)
2 hrs
  -> Thanks! Agreed:-)
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