Literary notes about agents (AI summary)
Across a wide range of literary works, the term "agents" is employed in both literal and metaphorical senses, designating figures or entities that act as forces of change, conduits of responsibility, or even abstract catalysts. In philosophical treatises such as those by John Locke, agents are portrayed as fundamental principles in processes without volition ([1], [2]), while Aristotle highlights characters as carriers of action and fate in tragedies ([3]). In narrative fiction, from Victor Hugo’s depictions of police and government agents ([4], [5]) to Alexandre Dumas’s spirited portrayal of adventurers ([6], [7]), "agents" function as both tangible characters and symbolic instruments of a larger unfolding plot. Moreover, the term extends to domains such as commerce and science—illustrated by references to commercial agents in legal discourse ([8], [9]) and even to natural forces like birds acting as seed dispersal agents in Darwin’s work ([10]). This varied usage demonstrates how writers have long relied on the concept of "agents" to encapsulate the idea of intermediary power, responsibility, and the driving forces behind events in both human affairs and natural processes.
- Agents that have no thought, no volition at all, are in everything NECESSARY AGENTS. 14.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - But the fault has been, that faculties have been spoken of and represented as so many distinct agents.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.
— from The Poetics of Aristotle by Aristotle - "Mr. Commissary, we are Government agents.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - The police agents laid their hands on M. Baze.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - “He has agents, then, throughout the world?” cried d’Artagnan.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - The antechamber was full of police agents and gendarmes, in the midst of whom, carefully watched, but calm and smiling, stood the prisoner.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - [232] to an expression of Godefroi with regard to agents; eadem est persona domini et procuratoris.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - The courts habitually speak as if the same rules applied to brokers and other agents, as to servants properly so called.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - Living birds can hardly fail to be highly effective agents in the transportation of seeds.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin