Joshua Shepherd: Creative agency and agentive fragmentation

Tuesday November 11 2025 @11:30 (CET)
Sala B, Edificio de Humanidades, UNED & online

Abstract
Creative action is often thought to deviate from standard intentional agency in a number of ways. It involves significant luck and spontaneity. And it does not rely on intentions and plans in the normal way. I will argue that creative action often stems from an interesting feature of human agents, what I call agentive fragmentation. After clarifying various ways that human agents are fragmented, I will connect fragmentation to interesting aspects of creative agency.

Bio
Joshua Shepherd is ICREA Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has published articles and books on a range of topics in the philosophy of psychology, philosophy of agency, and ethics.