Title: Re: "rise of china" and wst - 'free will'
or 'agency'?
I think we're mixing up 'free will' with 'agency'.
For example, let's assume that there is no free will -
that all human behavior is subservient to psychological
determinism. We are still left with the question of whether
history is determined more by agency or historical determinism.
'Agency' in this case would amount to the psychologically-determined
actions of world leaders. The agency vs historical-determinism
debate would be a debate between which determinism is more
powerful: psychological determinism or historical
determinism.
On the other hand, if we assume there is free will, then
the debate would be between the free choice of leaders, and
historical determinism.
As I see it, the existence or not of free will is entirely
irrelevant to the agency-determinism debate in the context of WSN.
From our perspective, it is the efficacy of agency that matters
- not its internal mechanism.
make sense?
rkm