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Pathologies of Agency

Radoilska, Lubomira V. (2022) Pathologies of Agency. In: Ferrero, Luca, ed. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Agency. Routledge, Abingdon, UK. ISBN 978-1-138-06284-9. (doi:10.4324/9780429202131) (KAR id:84865)

Abstract

This chapter aims to distinguish between pathologies of agency in the strict sense and mere sources of impediments or distortion. Expanding on a recent notion of necessarily less-than-successful agency, it complements a mainstream approach to mental disorders and anomalous psychological conditions in the philosophy of mind and action. According this approach, the interest of such clinical case studies is heuristic, to differentiate between facets of agency that are functionally and conceptually separate even though they typically come together. Yet, in the absence of independent criterion for a pathology of as opposed to inner obstacle to agency, this heuristic is at risk of becoming circular or uninformative, falling back on a clinical diagnosis it is meant to take as a starting point only. The chapter develops such a criterion and shows how it could work tracking agential achievement across two core dimensions of agency: planning and responsiveness to reasons. The discussion concludes with some implications on assessing decisional capacity and safeguarding agent autonomy in psychiatric settings.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.4324/9780429202131
Uncontrolled keywords: achievement; agency; decisional capacity; mental disorders; necessarily less-than-successful agency; pathologies of agency; planning; psychiatry; responsiveness to reasons
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Lubomira Radoilska
Date Deposited: 21 Dec 2020 10:05 UTC
Last Modified: 01 Jan 2023 00:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/84865 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Radoilska, Lubomira V..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6442-0459
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