This article outlines four broad notions of the self or human agency. They are a traditional understanding of the self as defined by a meaningful cosmic order, a modern notion of the self as highly individualized and autonomous, often termed self-contained individualism, a decentered conception of the self as developed recently by postmodern and social constructionist thought, and a dialogical understanding of self and agency elaborated by hermeneutic thinkers and Bakhtin. Much modern social science presupposes self-contained individualism as the unquestioned nature of things and thereby tends to prepetuate views and ideals that are a source of modern dilemmas in living that social science itself tries to address. It is argued that postmodern, constructionist notions of human action restore a sense of its embeddedness in culture and history but still are colored by individualistic and scientistic elements of the modern view they seek to displace. A dialogical, partly decentered, view of human agency may offer a way to do justice to how selves are woven into the fabric of culture and history without thereby undermining our best conceptions of freedom and responsibility.
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