What is Agency?

[Revelations won]

What is agency and what conditions are required for agency to exist?

Agency is the ability and freedom to choose good or evil. It is an eternal principle.

Four great principles must be in force if there is to be agency:

1. Laws must exist, laws ordained by an Omnipotent power, laws which can be obeyed or disobeyed;

2. Opposites must exist---good and evil, virtue and vice, right and wrong---that is, that is there must be an opposition, one force pulling one way and another pulling the other;

3. A knowledge of good and evil must be had by those who are to enjoy the agency, that is, they must know the difference between the opposites; and

4 An unfettered power of choice must prevail.

Can agency really exist if we leave out any of the 4 above listed principles?

[fredonly]

Can agency really exist if we leave out any of the 4 above listed principles?

You defined agency as requiring those 4 principles, so obviously they must all be satisfied to meet your definition.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a long article on the topic. It describes it generally, this way:

"In very general terms, an agent is a being with the capacity to act, and ‘agency’ denotes the exercise or manifestation of this capacity. The philosophy of action provides us with a standard conception and a standard theory of action. The former construes action in terms of intentionality, the latter explains the intentionality of action in terms of causation by the agent’s mental states and events. From this, we obtain a standard conception and a standard theory of agency. "

[Revelations won]

Dear Fredonly,

Thank you for your response. You cite a dictionary theory of agency which has no definitive foundation. This theory seems open ended and variable. What is the foundation? Where did it originate? Do not people need a clear foundation to properly exercise agency? Is the agency you cite originating from almighty God or just some man made theory? It is difficult for me to understand how man can exercise sound moral choices without a clear foundational basis.

[William]

[Replying to Revelations won in post #1]

Your explanation of Agency means that Adam didn't fit the profile until after gaining agency through disobedience.