A very familiar way of thinking about animal nature returns the answer “no” to this question. There is a long tradition of separating ourselves off from the other animals – of trying to argue that we are nobler or better or more important than they are in some very fundamental respect.

Agency should be regarded neither as an illusion, nor as the peculiar possession of a single species. Rather, it is a power which characterises biological entities of a certain degree and type of complexity, an evolutionary innovation of quite extraordinary importance, which develops as creatures emerge which have a range of complex and sometimes competing goals. 

Such creatures may need to utilise perceptually acquired information from a number of sources in order to solve problems, to which there is not necessarily any unique best answer, about how to distribute themselves and their efforts through space and time, in pursuit of their ends. Agential powers are nature’s way of solving these problems; and we need to understand them.

Steward, H. (2015). Do animals have free will?  https://doi.org/10.5840/tpm20156810

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