ABSTRACT
(1) I argue that agency, for Locke, consists in the ability to initiate action. Lockean agency is widely distributed. It requires the ability to perceive – which Locke extends to all animals, even oysters – and to feel pleasure and pain (else there would be no motivation for action). Beyond that, agency does not require much cognitive sophistication. (2) Locke also has a notion of free agency, the sort of agency possessed by beings who can act freely and are capable of the suspension and deliberation that allows our free actions be guided by reason. This requires more cognitive sophistication than mere agency: it requires the ability to predict the outcomes of different courses of action and decide which is better, the ability to hold off on acting until deliberation is complete, and the ability to recalibrate one’s desires in light of such deliberation. (3) Finally, Locke has a conception of moral agency. This requires the ability to abstract, as well as the various cognitive capacities required for agency in general and free agency in particular, since all these cognitive capacities are necessary in order for an agent to know the natural law and have reason to obey it. (4) Locke designed his theory so that only human beings have all the cognitive capacities required for moral agency. It’s less clear whether he thought that all human beings have these cognitive capacities.
