Unconscious agency

 The title to this posting may seem a little contradictory at first to me at least.  When I think of agency, I think of something that I have at least some control over.  From this definition, the word control would imply that the outcome of my action has some intentionality behind it and because of this, doesn't it mean that we must be aware of both our action and the intended effect it will have?  This is where I began become confused during last Thursday's discussion group.  We eventually reached a point where it seemed to be agreed upon that there might be times where we would unconsciously affect someone else.  If I remember correctly, it was said that we might say something or do an action which causes affects someone else who sees or hears us.  The affect on someone else however is unbeknownst to us and if we were able to effectively change their perspective on something or cause them to do something then we have effectively made use of our unconscious agency.

I however disagree with this.  Even if we were not aware that we had affected someone else through our words/actions that would not mean that it was done unconsciously.  Whatever we say or do is almost always done for a purpose and is meant to incite some type of emotion from others.  The effect we want others to have is intentional and even if we unaware if we affected others that would not classify the agency as unconscious because ultimately it still incited some form of reaction from them.