Human agency is typically theorized as a unique form of control or countercontrol in a determinant world. Thus, the nature of world (as a closed, determinant space) is taken for granted, creating a notoriously difficult theoretical problem: formulating a persuasive account of how agency as countercontrol might coherently fit within the world conceived and prioritized in this way. Based on hermeneutic thought, I contend that a primary focus on agency as an immanently meaningful phenomenon obviates this problem and offers possibilities for more effective theorizing. From this hermeneutic perspective, agency is conceptualized as concernful involvement in practices; and a concomitant view of world is conceptualized as an immanently meaningful space of participation. I conclude by revisiting the notion of control and offering a brief account of how it fits within this hermeneutic account of agency.
BaumeisterR. F.MeleA. R.VohsK. (2010). Free will and consciousness: How might they work?Oxford University Press.
4.
BraunN.DebenerS.SpychalaN.BongartzE.SörösP.MüllerH. H. O.PhilipsenA. (2018). The senses of agency and ownership: A review. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 535. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00535
5.
BrinkmannS. (2011). Psychology as a moral science: Perspectives on normativity. Springer.
6.
BurnetteJ. L.O’BoyleE. H.VanEppsE. M.PollackJ. M.FinkelE. J. (2013). Mindsets matter: A meta-analytic review of implicit theories and self-regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 139(3), 655–701. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029531
7.
CarverC. S.ScheierM. F. (1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior. Springer-Verlag.
8.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of self-determination theory. University of Rochester Press.
9.
DennettD. C. (1969). Content and consciousness. Routledge.
10.
DennettD. C. (1978). On giving libertarians what they say they want. In DennettD. C. (Ed.), Brainstorms: Philosophical essays on mind and philosophy (pp. 286–299). MIT Press.
11.
DennettD. (1993). Back from the drawing board. In DahldomB. (Ed.), Dennett and his critics (pp. 203–235). MIT Press.
12.
DreyfusH. L. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division1. MIT Press.
13.
DreyfusH. L. (2014). Skillful coping: Essays on the phenomenology of perception and action. Oxford University Press.
14.
FischerJ. M. (2014). Deep control: Essays on free will and value. Oxford University Press.
15.
FlemingV.GaidysU.RobbY. (2003). Hermeneutic research in nursing: Developing a Gadamerian-based research method. Nursing Inquiry, 10(2), 113–120. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1800.2003.00163.x
16.
FrieR. (2011). Situated experience: Psychological agency, meaning, and morality in worldly contexts. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 6(3), 340–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/15551024.2011.582935
17.
GanttE. E.WilliamsR. N. (2014). Psychology and the legacy of Newtonianism: Motivation, intentionality, and the ontological gap. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 34(2), 83–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031587
18.
GiorgiA. P.GiorgiB. M. (2003). The descriptive phenomenological psychological method. In CamicP. M.RhodesJ. E.YardleyL. (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design (pp. 243–273). American Psychological Association.
19.
GongS. P.YancharS. C. (2019). Question asking and the common good: A hermeneutic investigation of student questioning in moral configurations of classroom practice. Qualitative Research in Education, 8(3), 248–275. https://doi.org/10.17583/qre.2019.3947
20.
GriffithM. (2013). Free will: The basics. Routledge.
21.
GuignonC. B. (1983). Heidegger and the problem of knowledge. Hackett.
22.
GuignonC. (2002). Ontological presuppositions of the determinism-free will debate. In AtmanspacherH.BishopR. (Eds.), Between chance and choice: Interdisciplinary perspectives on determinism (pp. 321–337). Imprint Academic.
HeideggerM. (1962). Being and time (MacquarrieJ.RobinsonE., Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published 1927)
25.
HeideggerM. (1971). Poetry, language, thought (HofstadterA., Trans.). Harper & Row.
26.
HeideggerM. (1977a). What is metaphysics? In KrellD. F. (Ed.), Basic writings (pp. 95–112). Harper San Francisco.
27.
HeideggerM. (1977b). The origin of the work of art. In KrellD. F. (Ed.), Basic writings (pp. 149–187). Harper San Francisco.
28.
HeideggerM. (1977c). The question concerning technology and other essays (LovittW., Trans. & Intro.). HarperCollins.
29.
HonderichT. (2002). Determinism as true, compatibilism and incompatibilism as false, and the real problem. In KaneR. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of free will (pp. 461–476). Oxford University press.
MischelW.Mendoza-DentonR. (2003). Harnessing willpower and socioemotional intelligence to enhance human agency and potential. In AspinwallL. G.StaudingerU. M. (Eds.), A psychology of human strengths: Fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology (pp. 245–256). American Psychological Association.
PereboomD. (2001). Living without free will. Cambridge University Press.
44.
PinkT. (2004). Free will: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
45.
PolanyiM. (1962). Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. University of Chicago Press.
46.
RobinsonD. N. (1985). Philosophy of psychology. Columbia University Press.
47.
RobinsonD. N. (1986). An intellectual history of psychology. University of Wisconsin Press.
48.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Press.
49.
RychlakJ. F. (1988). The psychology of rigorous humanism. New York University Press.
50.
SappingtonA. A. (1990). Recent psychological approaches to the free will versus determinism issue. Psychological Bulletin, 108(1), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.1.19
51.
SearleJ. R. (2007). Freedom and neurobiology: Reflections on free will, language, and political power. Columbia University Press.
52.
SecordP. F. (1984). Determinism, free will, and self-intervention: A psychological perspective. New Ideas in Psychology, 2(1), 25–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/0732-118X(84)90030-8
53.
SimonH. A. (1996). Sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.). MIT Press.
54.
SlifeB. D.WilliamsR. N. (1995). What’s behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences. SAGE.
55.
SmithR. (2015). Agency: A historical perspective. In GruberC. W.ClarkM. G.KlempeS. H.ValsinerJ. (Eds.), Annals of theoretical psychology: Vol. 12. Constraints of agency: Explorations of theory in everyday life (pp. 3–29). Springer.
TaylorC. (1985). Human agency and language: Philosophical papers (Vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.
59.
WertzF. J. (2005). Phenomenological research methods for counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(2), 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.167
60.
WestermanM. A. (2006). Quantitative research as an interpretive enterprise: The mostly unacknowledged role of interpretation in research efforts and suggestions for explicitly interpretive, quantitative investigations. New Ideas in Psychology, 24(3), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2006.09.004
61.
WigginsD. (1973). Toward a reasonable libertarianism. In HonderichT. (Ed.), Essays on freedom of action (pp. 33–61). Routledge & Kegan Paul.
WrathallM. A. (2013). Heidegger on human understanding. In WrathallM. A. (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Heidegger’s Being and Time (pp. 177–200). Cambridge University Press.
64.
WrathallM. A. (2014). Autonomy, authenticity, and the self. In McManusD. (Ed.), Heidegger, authenticity, and the self: Themes from division two of Being and Time (pp. 193–214). Routledge.
YancharS. C. (2018). Agency, world, and the ontological ground of possibility. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 38(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/teo0000068
YancharS. C.SpackmanJ. S. (2012). Agency and learning: Some implications for educational theory and research. Educational Technology, 52(5), 3–13.
69.
YoungJ. (2000). What is dwelling? The homelessness of modernity and the worlding of the world. In WrathallM. A.MalpasJ. (Eds.), Heidegger, authenticity and modernity: Essays in honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus (Vol. 1, pp. 187–204). MIT Press.
