the.com/agency
the radical conviction that your next move is actually yours to make
means The capacity to act independently and make your own free choices, shaping outcomes rather than merely having them happen to you.
from From Latin agere, "to do, to drive, to set in motion" — the same restless root that powers act, agent, and agile. Medieval Latin spun off agentia for "active operation," and English borrowed agency in the 17th century, first meaning simply "the doing of a thing." Only later did it harden into the philosopher's prized sense: not just doing, but the power to do.
- latin root
- from agere, meaning to do or to drive
- locus of control
- psychologists link internal sense to better health
- free will debate
- neuroscientists still argue whether it exists at all
- learned helplessness
- its absence can be taught, then unlearned
- economics
- the agent-principal problem haunts every contract
central intelligence agency — u.s. federal agency established 1947, conducts espionage and intelligence operations
interpol — international criminal police organization with 195 member countries coordinating cross-border crime investigation