[This] kind of self-reliance … is essentially different from the cult of the sovereign self, and it requires some further reflection on the idea of agency … . [This idea of agency] is activity directed toward some end that is affirmed as good by the actor, but this affirmation is not something arbitrary and private. Rather, it flows from an apprehension of real features of the world. This may be something easy to grasp … . Or it may be something requiring discernment. In activities that are directed toward some end, the goodness of the end in question isn’t simply posited. There is a progressive revelation of why one ought to aim at just this, as well as how one can achieve it. The progressive character of revelation energizes your efforts to become competent — something about the world is coming into clearer view, and it is exciting. The sense that your judgments are becoming truer is part of the experience of being fully engaged in what you are doing; it is a feeling of joining a world that is independent of yourself, with the help of another who is further along.

Posted on February 12, 2010