Agents without Agency

摘要

The notion of agency occupies a central position in several of thecognitive sciences, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. However, the notion largely rests on folk psychology and is usually left more or less undefined. This paper examines different notions of agency and analyzes the concept with a special focus on its role in AI, where much recent research has been devoted to the construction of artificial agents. We highlight recent naturalist theories of agency and argue that even if agency is not merely a folk-psychological concept without ontological bearing or scientific value, the phenomenon is more complex than most theories acknowledge. We argue that, as the title implies, none of the so-called agents of contemporary AI and robotics can be attributed agency in the strong sense, although artificial agency is not impossible in principle.