Poverty, Intention, and Prospective Agency

When and where

Date and time

Mon, Sep 14 · 3:30 p.m.EDT — local Toronto time

Location

Larkin Building, Room 20015 Devonshire Place, University of Toronto, Toronto, onToronto

About this event

Prospective agency is our ability to form commitments and coordinate actions with ourselves and others through time. Philosophers have reflected on prospective agency as it manifests in contexts of relative affluence: mostly predictable environments where agents enjoy some economic stability and functioning institutions. Of course, that kind of context is not representative of most people’s realities. How would our understanding of prospective agency change once we consider environments of poverty, characterized by scarcity and structural unpredictability? In this talk I will use new work in the sociology and psychology of poverty to reinterpret **the key philosophical notion of intention**. While intention has often been seen as intimately linked to plans, I will argue that this link is contingent and that intention can take multiple forms that differ significantly from standard plans in response to the structure of the agent’s practical environment. Juan-Pablo Bermudez https://www.s

Official details

Tickets:

Official ticket page for Poverty, Intention, and Prospective Agency

Price:

Free

Organizer:

The Toronto Philosophy Meetup

Listing source:

meetup

Last verified September 14, 2026 · evntally doesn't sell tickets — we point you to the box office.