sprout Summary
A work-in-progress collection of thoughts related to personal agency.
This page is currently heavy WIP. It should be more readable in the next week or two!
what is agency?
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
In very general terms, an agent is a being with the capacity to act, and ‘agency’ denotes the exercise or manifestation of this capacity.
why agency matters
the research trailhead: a syllabus
00. the origins of agency: action theory, free will, and individualism
According to the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy, modern concepts of personal agency may have originated from Aristotle’s philosophy on action, specifically from how he creates a definition for “voluntary action”:
If the starting point of action (archê) is the agent’s choice, it is up to him or her to do or not do the action (see Nicomachean Ethics). The order of explanation is as follows:
- The starting point (archê) is in us (a choice: hairesis);
- It is up to us to do or forbear from doing the action;
- We are in control of the action.
Consider the connection between 1 and 2: in Aristotle’s view, the agent’s choice, in the case of voluntary actions, determines what happens.
01. modern academic literature on agency
02. agency in the internet era
Jacky Zhao https://jzhao.xyz/posts/agentic-computing
03. agency in the AI era
In the last year or two (2024-25), AI labs have started adopting the term “agent” to describe a emergent pattern in LLM interaction design.
https://wattenberger.com/thoughts/boo-chatbots
