The problem of nonhuman agency and bodily intentionality in the Anthropocene

Abstract

One of the vital issues in the discourse on the Anthropocene is the problem of material or bodily agency. Agency has long been the exclusive attribute of human consciousness and intentionality, but now the boundary between humans and nonhumans, mind and body, has become problematic. How might we reconceptualize agency? This article attempts to answer that question by working through Bruno Latour's posthuman configuration of agency. Latour's plea to reject not only consciousness but also intentionality conflicts with his animistic vision. What we need is not to dismiss intentionality in toto but to dehumanize it and acknowledge that there is a nonhuman form of intentionality. The intentionality that he wrongly paired with consciousness is a restricted and derived version of bodily intentionality. The body is not inert matter but is animate and intentional, for it is an endeavor to continue in its being. This article argues that there is no animism without such intentionality and that Latour's animism will become indistinguishable from mechanism as long as Latour fails to acknowledge animism’s intentionality.