ABSTRACT
The simplest way for a philosopher to explain this intuitive distinction is in terms of the concept of ‘agency.’ Things might not look much better if people consider some of the standard ways in which the concept of agency is introduced by philosophers, such as agency as the capacity to ‘make things happen,’ ‘make a difference,’ or ‘cause some kind of change.’ Agency is a capacity: it can be possessed without being exercised or manifested. A goal-directed movement has a certain ‘direction’ or ‘orientation’ toward the goal in question, which means that only some of the ways in which the agent might behave would make her attain the goal or at least move her closer to attaining it. The insistence on the goal-directed or purposive character of paradigmatic examples of agency seems correct. The distinction between production and maintenance also relates to the paradigmatic structure of the agent’s goals.
