The Sense of Agency: Awareness and Ownership of Action

Abstract

Abstract All four quotations cited above connect action and self, or self consciousness, and as such are in a long tradition. But the first and second pairs pull in opposite I am the author of this chapter in that I wrote it. However, certain other people are part agents of it, in that they played causal roles in its production and its content, and therefore must take partial responsibility, whether they intended the result or not. Johannes Roessler and Naomi Eilan organized and invited me to the workshop where this started. Johannes persisted in aiding and abetting the execution and inclusion of this chapter. He has also failed to decline to converse with me over several years. Naomi Eilan has failed to decline to converse with me for a much longer period, and has helped to clarify the chapter. They are clearly accessories both before and after the fact. John Campbell has said much that has affected the content. Christopher Peacocke has even more directly contributed, though I have failed to profit from many of his comments. Others that have perhaps unwittingly played a causal role in conversation (though ignorance is no excuse) are Jonathan Miller, Jim Russell, Chris Frith, Nick Humphrey, Sergio Della Sala, and Jonathan Cole. For their part, I plead as Portia that mercy may mitigate justice; for my part, I declare as Shylock responds to her, ‘my deeds upon my head’.