Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Darulfunun Ilahiyat, cilt.37, sa.1, ss.1-30, 2026 (Scopus, TRDizin)
This article aims to contribute to rethinking the concept of the agent in the context of Türkiye and the related literature. Through a conceptual discussion and genealogical comparison between Şerif Mardin’s description of the “daemonic agent” and critical realism’s understanding of the “reflexive agent,” it is reminded that the individual is not only a figure shaped within social structures, but also a subject that comes into existence through his/her inner world, thoughts and conflicts. The study aims to contribute to the ongoing intellectual debates on agency in Türkiye on two interrelated levels. First, it proposes to go beyond the conventional moulds of the concept of agency by rethinking the human being not only as a passive bearer of social structures but also as a subject that exists with its own inner orientation, intellectual depth and ontological capacity. With the reflexivity of critical realism, the role of repressed potential in the processes of intellectual production becomes visible in contrast to Mardin’s daemonic figure of the agent. In this context, the agent is treated as the bearer of not only external conditions but also its own internal conflicts and capacity for transformation. Finally, while questioning the ingrained auto-orientalist discourses such as “we lack it, the West does,” the study proposes a discussion ground that addresses the layered, authentic and plural forms of ontological approach to agency within the local intellectual climate.