LXXXII – Beginners Guide to Philosophy (No. 5)

It’s About Time

One way of thinking about Agency is to think of the Agent as standing at the intersection between Potentiality and Actuality. Thus we scratch the tip of considerations of Time, change, and reality itself.

Reality, we recall, has a spiritual and material component. What most typically mean by referring to reality is just the material parts. The sum of all material in reality we can call the universe. One of the defining characteristics of material, and by extension the universe which contains it, is that it changes. Nothing material stays the same, stays still. Indeed, one of the laws of Thermodynamics says that “Entropy is Increasing”, or that the material universe tends to disorder. On a long enough time span, the components of a rock will be disordered from their rock form into something atomic or subatomic. This propensity to change means that we must be able to tell the difference between what was, what is, and what will be. The way we do this is Time.

Time is the measure of material change. But consider that rock. If I chip a piece off of it, is it the same rock? How do we talk about the rock in the past? In the future?

Actual Potential

There is consistency between past, present, and future, when talking about anything. Because time has changed, doesn’t mean the rock has changed, doesn’t mean I have changed. We can approach the concept of actuality. That which is actual is whole, entire, completed. That which isn’t actual is potential. So considering the rock, it’s future is potential. It’s present, considered as a specific slice of time, is actual. What is it’s past?

The present cannot be arrived at without hitting every slice of time from the past, going all the way back. So the present is the sum of all previous ‘presents’. By which i mean, the past is actual, too. This makes logical sense, given how we talk about time: the past changes us, or influences us. How can this be if we are not the summation of our past? If we are not the top of a lifetime of living? Every moment, a piece of us is actualized, and entered into the record.

What of the future? It isn’t actual, so it is potential. But there can be multiple potentialities! That chipped rock from earlier, I can chip it further, I can polish it, sculpt it, throw it. It has many potentialities. At the end of that rock, when it ceases to be, when it has no potentialities (as a rock, anyway), when it is fully realized and actual, it will be fully actual.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3R | Part 4 | Part 5

LXXX – Beginners Guide to Philosophy (No. 4)

I Ask Again, What Is Agency?

In Part 1, we established the following:

• Agency is the distinguishing feature of a being
• Agency has command over life force (what I called instinct)
• Agency is supernatural
• Agency can exist sans material, in the form of supernatural beings (Angels, the Divine)

None of these things give us a clear idea of what agency is and how it works. So now we can take the time to go deeper on the subject. Agents, like all things, have accidents and essences. Lets consider what these are made of.

Agency has control over instinct, so it has a deciding function, by virtue of being able to decide to do or not do what instinct tells it. This implies, through this concept of decision, that there is a thinking component and a doing component.

Thinking is the active engagement of the mental faculties. Thinking includes perception of data, both sensory and emotional. Thinking includes cognition, or calling upon prior knowledge. Perception and Cognition can be combined in analysis, that is, qualifying or quantifying perceived information; or predicting, that is, creating expectations about the future.

When we contrive any component of the thinking process, ignoring any real component thereof, we call that imagining. Imagining uses all the same faculties as thinking, but for scenarios which will not or cannot yet happen.

The other component of Agency is this doing ability. Doing is the active engagement of our material faculties. Reaching out to grab an apple from a tree, or restraining ourselves from grabbing an apple from a tree which isn’t ours, is doing. This includes both action and restraint. Indeed the engagement of the mental faculties is a kind of material faculty, in other words we can “do” thinking, or restrain our thinking. Doing allows thinking, and thinking determines what we need to be doing. Both powers are mutually interdependent.

Will Power

This doing ability is typically referred to as the Will. Intention is a function of the Will because it precedes what we do. Intention is how the thinking power interfaces with the doing power. Perfection of the Will means there is no barrier between forming an intention and executing an action. If I intend to reach out and grab an apple from a tree, I will follow that intention with the action of reaching out and grabbing the apple. Said another way, intent is an unrealized act of will; while action is a realized act of will.

Imperfection of the will means there is barrier between forming an intention and executing an action. This barrier can come in many forms. Suppose I know the tree is not mine, but I have a strong desire to take the apple. My will restrains me, for a time, but is overcome and I take the apple. My intention and my action are not aligned. This is due to nature.

Our natural impulses are not totally dominated by our supernatural powers, so sometimes they are in conflict. Will power, is our ability to enforce our own will on ourselves. I said above that Agency has command over instinct, but not 100% command. Agency has enough command to say, eat or not eat at certain times of day, whether we are hungry or not. But our unique personalities dictate which natural impulses we are more or less vulnerable to. One man might be able to fast and eat only one meal a day. Another man might have the same intention, but when faced with donuts in the office kitchen, he succumbs. So the Will exercises imperfect control over our nature, but can be strengthened through practice and repetition.

Intellect

The thinking power is typically referred to as intellect. The intellect had many more components.

• Perception
• Cognition
• Analysis
• Prediction

And all of these can be committed towards Imagination as well. So let’s demarcate some boundaries for each of these things.

Perception is any information received by the intellect. This includes any data informed by conscience, senses, and the like. Cognition is strictly related to knowledge, facts, and events. Analysis is assigning values to perception and cognition; and prediction is forecasting based on all this. Lets look at a scenario:

I see a rock in my path (perception). I know rocks that big are probably heavy (cognition). I can deduce that it won’t move if I kick it (analysis). If I try to kick it I will hurt my foot (prediction).

I can also use imagination to predict that if I try to kick the rock, it will explode. This conclusion is not supported by data, but nevertheless, I can still walk carefully around the rock and act as if it would explode if touched. Making actions based on imagination is pretending.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3R | Part 4