Learn English – What do “agent” and “agency” mean respectively in “moral agent” and “moral agency”？

meaning

“Agent”, OED says, could mean “an active and efficient cause, capable of producing a certain effect”; “agency” could mean “a thing or person that acts to produce a particular result”. It seems they are synonyms.

Then I come across two related phrases: moral agent, moral agency. “Agent” in “moral agent”, though means simply a subject, an “actor”, can be understood in a sense as a cause of an act.

Since “moral agency” is used to mean the inner dynamics of the moral agent, “agency” is to be understood as “cause” too: what makes the agent act morally? To treat them both as meaning “cause” cannot justify them representing two things different in order.

Therefore I doubt that maybe “agent” refers to the causes which are of natural kind, such as human or corporation, while “agency” can mean the inner cause that explains how the causes work as a cause. Sorry, this may be a very immature thought, please feel free to correct me!

Best Answer

Moral agent and moral agency are terms in ethics (moral philosophy) used in discussions of responsibility, negligence, judgment, and free will. You will also find it in philosophy of law, psychology, theology, and other fields interested in questions of accountability.

The philosophical sense of agent is of a person or thing which performs an action, and agency is the capacity to take that action. That is, an agent is one who possesses agency.

As Blackwell puts it, moral agency is

Any individual who is capable of formulating or following general moral principles and rules, and who has an autonomous will so that he can decide ultimately what acts he should perform and not perform.

Moral agents can react to the acts of other moral agents. Accordingly they are responsible for their acts and are the subject of blame or praise. Adult human beings are paradigmatic moral agents.

Moral agents are contrasted to moral patients: beings that lack rationality and cannot be held morally accountable for their acts.

Various authors in various fields offer more nuanced definitions:

Moral agents are various described— as entities that are causally responsible for actions (Eshleman, 2004; Heider, 1958), as entities that can earn blame or praise for their actions (Shaver, 1985), as entities that know their actions as right or wrong (Edwards, 1790; H. B. Miller, 1994), or as entities that can intend (Bratman, 1987). These definitions allow moral agency to be ascribed to humans, of course, but also to be attributed in limited ways to groups (e.g. corporations, nations; Knobe & Prinz, 2008) and sometimes even to animals (Shapiro, 2006) or mechanical agents, such as robots or computers (Floridi & Sanders, 2004).

Related Topic