ABSTRACT
Agential powers (abilities and skills)—for example, the ability to walk and the skill of baking—play a large role in everyday thought and conduct concerning human agency. We care about their acquisition, maintenance, and development, and are concerned about their loss. However, the role of agential powers in agency and the explanation of action has not been a focus of analytic philosophy of agency, and it is not well understood. Among several important issues that need to be resolved, the following are discussed here: the connection between agential powers and ‘basic action,’ the specification of agential powers, the distinction between skills and abilities, and whether agential powers are dispositions—and if so, whether they are dispositions of a distinctive form.
