Educational Series on Understanding Agency

Human life is not only something we possess—it is something we enact. Every thought, movement, and decision expresses our capacity to shape the conditions of our existence. This capacity is called agency: the ability to act intentionally, to influence outcomes, and to live according to one’s own coherent sense of purpose. To understand agency is to understand what makes life responsive, self-directed, and meaningful.

Yet agency is not guaranteed. It depends on the integrity of both body and mind, on the stability of our environments, and on the relationships that sustain our capacity to choose and act. When fear, fatigue, coercion, or social disorder narrow that capacity, our ability to act freely—and to act well—begins to collapse. Recognizing these forces and learning how to preserve our agency under pressure is therefore essential not only to survival, but to moral life itself.

This Educational Series on Understanding Agency explores what it means to act as a coherent, responsible, and self-directing being. It traces the development of agency from its biological foundations through its moral dimensions, showing how autonomy, self-regulation, and defense form the architecture of moral agency. Across seven interconnected essays, the series examines how freedom of action emerges from living systems, how it depends on supportive conditions, and how it can be safeguarded through deliberate practice and ethical awareness.

For practitioners of Northern Sage Kung Fu—and for anyone seeking clarity and composure in modern life—these ideas are not abstract. They describe the same dynamics we train in every form and every moment of mindful action: maintaining structure under stress, responding rather than reacting, and restoring balance when coherence is threatened. To live with agency is to embody the art of self-regulation—to act as oneself, for oneself, and with awareness of one’s place in the greater order.

Together, these essays invite readers to see agency not as a philosophical concept but as a living discipline—the foundation of freedom, responsibility, and moral life.

→ Part 1: Working Definition of Agency
→ Part 2: Understanding Agency Across Life Scales and Human Agency
→ Part 3: The Living Conditions that Make Freedom of Agency Possible
→ Part 4: The Anatomy of Moral Agency
→ Part 5: The Internal Capacities of Moral Agency
→ Part 6: The External Enabling Conditions of Moral Agency
→ Part 7: Self-Defence as the Operational Backbone of Moral Agency

You can also download and read the full pdf publication report here → here.

Click on the image above to download.

About The Author

Nathan A. Wright
Nathan is the Managing Director and Chief Instructor at Northern Sage Kung Fu Academy, and Chief Representative of Luo Guang Yu Seven Star Praying Mantis in Canada and China. With over 25 years of experience living in China, he is deeply committed to passing on traditional martial arts in its most sincere form. As part of his passion Nathan regularly writes on related topics of self-defense, combat, health, philosophy, ethics, personal cultivation, and leadership. Email Nathan if you have questions on this article, or if you have interest in learning more about studying traditional Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu.