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Discussion published In: Language and Dialogue
Vol. 7:2 (2017) ► pp.253–276

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Discussion

Agency

A figment of reality?

 | University of Birmingham (UK)
Published online: 27 October 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.7.2.06teu
Abstract
Am I responsible for what I say and how I say it? Or is what I say just a random transformation of what I have heard so far? Is my agency as a discourse participant perhaps borrowed from the agency of discourse? This ties in with another dimension: Is the reality confronting us, a reality that surely includes the notion of agency, a mere discourse construct? For the cognitive and neural sciences, individual agency is only an epiphenomenon of the real world, while it is endorsed by folk psychology and cultural anthropology, having long been a cherished tradition of western discourse. Obviously, selfhood in some form is part of our nature, though we only have discourse to talk about it. Thus it appears as a phenomenon of our contingent culture.
Article outline
  • 1.Setting the scene
  • 2.A brief overview
  • 3.The battle between science and folk psychology
  • 4.Agency in cultural anthropology
  • 5.Inventing the modern western man
  • 6.Does individual agency presuppose language?
  • 7.Agency, a figment of which reality?
  • 8.Coda
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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