Agency and Intentionality

Abstract

Nature cannot build organisms biologically prepared for every contingency they might possibly encounter. Instead, nature builds some organisms to function as feedback control systems that pursue goals, make informed behavioral decisions about how best to pursue those goals in the current situation, and then monitor behavioral execution for effectiveness. Nature builds psychological agents, and these are of several different types depending on the nature of the self-regulatory architecture involved. Humans have evolved to create joint and collective agencies with others, which has enabled them to construct the unique cultural niches within which all of their most complex cognitive and social capacities develop.