Agency (Part 2 of 8)

What Is Agency, and Why Has It Always Been Slippery?

Aristotle, marble portrait bust, Roman copy of a Greek original; in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy. (A. Dagli Orti—De Agostini/Getty Images)

Before agency became a buzzword in the age of AI, it was a philosophical dilemma, a spiritual koan, and still today, a neuroscientific puzzle. The question of whether we truly have the power to choose freel…