ABSTRACT

Agency, the theme of my life’s work, consists of efficacy, future-minded optimism, and imagination. I here attempt to trace the history of agency in Western thought over the Greco-Roman epoch. The Iliad presents mortals without any agency, the gods having it all; whereas in the Odyssey, humans have considerable agency, and the gods less. Later, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics postulate full-blown human agency. The emphasis on will, responsibility, and choice continues through early Christianity and then is renounced by Augustine in the fourth century, CE, with human agency relegated to being grace, a gift from God. Human progress seems linked to these beliefs, with strong human agency beliefs linked to progress and weak human agency beliefs linked to stagnation.

摘要

代理是我一生的工作主题，包括效能，对未来的乐观态度和想象力。在这里，我试图追溯希腊-罗马时代西方代理机构的历史。在伊利亚特没有任何机构礼物凡人，神拥有一切; 而在《奥德赛》中，人类具有相当大的权威，而神灵则较少。后来，苏格拉底，柏拉图，亚里斯多德，伊壁鸠鲁和斯多葛派人都提出了成熟的人类代理机构。对意志，责任和选择的强调一直延续到早期的基督教时代，然后在公元四世纪的奥古斯丁（Augustine）放弃，人类的代理权降为优雅，这是上帝的恩赐。人类的进步似乎与这些信念有关，强有力的人类机构信念与进步有关，而薄弱的人类机构信念则与停滞有关。