causal agency


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ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.causal agency - any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results
physical entity - an entity that has physical existence
individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"
agent - an active and efficient cause; capable of producing a certain effect; "their research uncovered new disease agents"
nature - a causal agent creating and controlling things in the universe; "the laws of nature"; "nature has seen to it that men are stronger than women"
occult, supernatural - supernatural forces and events and beings collectively; "She doesn't believe in the supernatural"
theurgy - the effect of supernatural or divine intervention in human affairs
first cause, prime mover, primum mobile - an agent that is the cause of all things but does not itself have a cause; "God is the first cause"
destiny, fate - the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face of destiny"
catalyst - something that causes an important event to happen; "the invasion acted as a catalyst to unite the country"
deus ex machina - any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an insoluble difficulty
manipulator, operator - an agent that operates some apparatus or machine; "the operator of the switchboard"
power, force - one possessing or exercising power or influence or authority; "the mysterious presence of an evil power"; "may the force be with you"; "the forces of evil"
life principle, vital principle - a hypothetical force to which the functions and qualities peculiar to living things are sometimes ascribed
engine - something used to achieve a purpose; "an engine of change"
cause of death, killer - the causal agent resulting in death; "heart disease is the biggest killer in the United States"
danger - a cause of pain or injury or loss; "he feared the dangers of traveling by air"
agent - a substance that exerts some force or effect
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
While I agree with Gutas that Islam is neither monolithic nor normative, I question whether or not this means that Islam, as a religious tradition, cannot have causal agency. If religious traditions are understood as historically conditioned movements of thought and debate among adherents, is it possible to argue that those debates extend to multiple domains of enquiry, including religion and the natural sciences?
Two such perspectives on self-determination are the social-ecological perspective (Walker et al., 2011) and causal agency theory (Wehmeyer & Abery, 2013).
Yet unilateral, divine causal agency undermines any appeal to a genuinely intersubjective relation between God and creation, since intersubjectivity is based on what might be called simultaneous mutual causality.
Films noir, Pippin argues, "provide even more compelling evidence about the differences between what we think we think we 'stil' think (about individual causal agency, self-knowledge, moral responsibility, and our reflective access to ourselves), and what we actually think....
In his encounter with post-modern geographical perspectives, this position enabled him to argue that causal agency was exercised by natural and human entities within locations of space and time, and that space and time were not causal entities in their own right.
Indeed, Nadler argues that interpreters like Garber over-read Descartes' use of the term 'occasion' as they assume it instantly transfers all true causal agency to God.
of Chicago) looks at the philosophical questions raised in film noir of the 1940s, especially the question of individual causal agency and related questions of self-knowledge and moral responsibility.
Critics of various human actions in the past, such as those who find racism to have been wrong, or sexism or environmental mismanagement, or the conduct of governments at home or abroad, all assume that some other course of action could have been taken, so they assume this kind of causal agency and liberty on the part of most people.
The positive thesis is that these aspects must be understood as the effects of an alternative causal agency, one that is properly characterized as "intelligent." Some people argue that ID is not science.
The book goes on to make a number of interesting observations on causal agency, and puts Kafalenos's wide knowledge to good use as she notes humans' general obsession with agents seeking to effect a change in a difficult situation, even when, as often happens in the nightly news, no change is likely to be effected, or even in cases where there is merely a set of events without any agents to cause them (and which lead some to postulate conspiracy theories or attribute supernatural direction to random happenings).