Agency in the Context of Internationalized Intellectual Practices: An Attempt at a socio-philosophical analysis of authorship

Abstract

This article presents a philosophical analysis of the transformation of agency within the context of institutionalized intellectual practices, utilizing the phenomenon of authorship as a case study. The focus is on the question of how contemporary intellectual practices set the framework for the subject’s possible action, redistributing the function of thought, responsibility, and recognition. The article demonstrates that authorship cannotbe viewed as an expression of individual consciousness. It is possible only as a historically formed statuswithin stable institutional structures. These structures presuppose the existence of mechanisms for regulatingintellectual activity (academic regulations, expert review practices, citation systems, digital platforms) thatshape the status of the intellectual, oriented toward the reproduction of formalized systems of action. The article demonstrates that, in the context of the infosphere and the development of artificial intelligence, distributed forms of knowledge production and a new institutional structure are emerging, constituting the phenomenon of authorship. The topic of authorship in contemporary academic, legal, and political discussions isproblematized because the existing conception of authorship no longer meets the new conditions of intellectual labor. The required revision is driven by the need to address questions of responsibility, innovation, andthe mechanisms for confirming and protecting authorship. The authors of the article draw on an understanding of agency as a person’s capacity to explore and transform the world in collaboration with others. Attemptsto attribute agency to artificial intelligence are based on the anthropomorphization of machines and technology. Only humans are capable of acting, thinking, and bearing responsibility; in the context of contemporaryrealities, the problem of agency becomes particularly relevant due to the increasing demands placed on humans regarding responsibility for cultural creation and self-preservation.