The human context of agency.

Abstract

The issue of human agency has been confused with the question of determinism versus indeterminism. The author takes the position that to argue for agency is not necessarily to argue for indeterminism. Once the agentive position is freed from the burden of indeterminism, it becomes a serious possibility. It is further argued that the notion of freedom as choice from among alternatives is conceptually flawed. A conception of freedom as "having the world truthfully" is presented as an alternative to freedom conceived as choice. This view of agency, drawing chiefly on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas, suggests that the proper grounding for the understanding of human freedom is in morality, rather than in the "metaphysic of things."

Moral Responsiveness and Discontinuity in Therapy: A Qualitative Study

“…Similarly, behaviorism might frame moral issues as ethics that individuals are conditioned to accept in order to live in society. True morality is not possible according to these modernist theories because action is a product of internal drives or external stimuli rather than being a choice between alternatives of different value (Williams, 1992). Another influential theoretical school that intersects with moral issues is humanism.…”

Developing and applying concepts about community: Reflections from the field

“…It is this author's belief that this relational dynamic is critical if community is to be transformational, for it is within voluntary commitment that the issue of power and control versus authority and responsibility can be dealt with. Williams (1992) has explored this concept with reference to the relationship between human agency and truth. Rather than be limited by a philosophical continuum bounded by determinism and indeterminism, he constructed a discourse that is anchored within metaphysical necessity and agency.…”

“…The models were developed as part of current, school-based, case-study material that focuses on preventing alienation for 10-to 14-year-old students. The first model furthers the theories of community as caring persons (Dokecki, 1992) in its third position (Newbrough, 1995) (Williams, 1992). This framework is then used to present a community-development application of the components of transformational community, extending the community concepts of McMillan and Chavis (1986) toward those similar to the empowerment-organizing features posited by Maton and Salem (1995), and the theoretical revisions of McMillan (1996).…”

“…To use a word such as "constructive" also implies making a value judgement about whether an experience of community is helpful or not. I shall attempt to use the concepts from Williams (1992) and Dokecki (1992) to suggest that our choices in relationship (the practice of human agency) can lead us to experiences of transformational community (in "Williams" language, "living truly") or in experiences towards isolation and alienation (in Dokecki terms, toward the removal from the ethos of care). The ethical direction of "power" within "empowerment" is then considered in trying to resolve some tensions between "you and me."…”

Case Studies and Non-Abstractionist Theorizing

“…One example that I wish to offer, namely, Malcolm Westcott's (1988Westcott's ( , 1992 scholarship regarding the experience of human freedom, suggests one way in which certain kinds of case study data can be used to help develop a non-abstractionist theoretical perspective. Human freedom may be a paradigmatic place to start with scholarship of this sort, since the idea of invoking abstractions to explain human activity undermines any serious effort to consider persons as genuinely agentive beings (Williams, 1992). …”