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Chapter 1b: Agency as anti-reductive

Much of daily life consists of our responses to problems and opportunities.  Practical reasoning is the name for the mental processes that guide these responses.  It can be divided into four stages: first comes our recognition of some opportunity or problem, followed by our deliberation about how to respond to it; followed in turn by the adoption of one of those courses of action; followed by our ascertaining the success or failure of our course of action.   If we reflect upon this process, we may recognize that we have kept the very same goal in mind throughout our deliberations, or we may recognize that the goal itself has changed.  In either case, we are aware of not only the goal, but also of our having pursued one or many goals at many different times.  This characterization of ourselves as desiring, anticipating, planning, acting, and reflecting can be summarized in the word "agency."  Looking at ourselves as agents is not to characterize ourselves as inner, mental or spiritual beings but as energetically striving and reaching for more.   Looking at ourselves as agents, furthermore, offers the most important evidence that we are more than machines; more than just the sum of our parts: we are living beings.

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