On Planning: Toward a Natural History of Goal

Abstract

The goal of the essay is to articulate some beginnings for an empirical approach
to the study of agency, in the firm conviction that agency is subject to scientific scrutiny,
and is not to be abandoned to high-brow aprioristic philosophy. Drawing on insights from
decision analysis, game theory, general dynamics, physics and engineering, this essay will
examine the diversity of planning phenomena, and in that way take some steps towards
assembling rudiments for the budding science, in the process innovating (parts of) a
technical vocabulary. The key is focus upon the organization of effort in time. This paper
categorizes forms of organization of effort in time, and yields an analysis of both individual
agency and coalitions of agents as forms of effort organized in time. Finally, it articulates
precise questions pertaining to the natural (evolutionary) history of forms of agency (once
upon a time referred to as ‘Will') that we now find on the ground.

Philosophical Papers Vol. 37 (2) 2008: pp. 289-317