ABSTRACT
Our human agency involves multiple forms of practical organization. These include the diachronic organization of an individual’s temporally extended activity. Think about growing food in one’s garden. And these include small-scale social organization in which multiple individuals act together in shared intentional/shared cooperative ways. Think about a string quartet. Our capacity for planning agency – agency structured by future-directed practical commitments – plausibly lies behind these basic forms of practical organization. I discuss efforts to understand the rational structure of our planning agency and its role in these interrelated forms of practical organization. I then discuss the potential role of these planning structures in our self-governance both at a time and over time. I close by noting other aspects of our human, practical lives that may involve support from our capacity for planning agency.
