Individual Agency and Emergence
Individual agency can indeed be seen as an emergent property of complex neural interactions. Just as consciousness arises from the collective behavior of neurons, so too may our capacity for decision-making, intention, and self-reflection emerge from the intricate workings of the brain. However, reducing agency solely to emergence risks overlooking the additional layers of context—such as cultural, social, and personal narratives—that influence how individuals perceive, exercise, and understand their agency. In short, while individual agency shares characteristics with other emergent phenomena, its full explanation might require more than a purely reductionist account.