Podcast Summary: New Books Network — Mercedes Valmisa, "All Things Act" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Episode Theme & Purpose This episode features a deep-dive interview between host Jessica Zhu and Professor Mercedes Valmisa on her new book, All Things Act (Oxford UP, 2025). The conversation explores revolutionary perspectives on agency and action, drawing on classical Chinese philosophy, contemporary science, and cross-disciplinary theory. Valmisa challenges orthodox Western conceptions of individual intentional action, presenting a relational, collective, and processual view of agency that includes humans and nonhumans alike.
1. Introduction & Author’s Background
[01:07 – 05:10]
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Jessica Zhu introduces guest Mercedes Valmisa, highlighting her innovative contributions to philosophy of action and agency, especially her comparative approach.
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Valmisa explains that her interest developed during her PhD as she noticed a focus on “adapting” in classical Chinese philosophy, especially in discussions about how to produce effects and exert power.
- She found action to be “collectively constituted and collectively carried out,” with individual agency never existing in isolation but always shaped by broader contexts and actors.
- She sought to develop a new approach to agency relevant for contemporary audiences and discovered cross-field convergences.
“Action is not understood as something that an individual does on their own. Actions are collectively constituted and also collectively carried out.... My actions are never just mine... always shaped by others and by broader situations and contexts.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [03:31]
2. The Book’s Structure and Central Claims
[05:10 – 06:59]
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The book is structured as an introduction, five chapters (some with appendices), and an epilogue.
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Central Thesis: There is no such thing as an individual action; agency is always collectively distributed across heterogeneous actors, human and nonhuman.
“All actions... are collectively constituted and performed by an assembly of actors.”
— Mercedes Valmisa quoted by Jessica Zhu [05:53]
Valmisa expands:
- Actions unfold via networks — language, technology, body, environment, habits, other people and things.
- Nonhuman elements "make a real difference in how actions unfold," thus participate as agents.
- Individuality, free will, intentionality are possible outcomes of collective processes, not prerequisites.
3. Methodology: The Relational, Processual, Horizontal Turn
[09:31 – 12:15]
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Valmisa describes her adoption of a “relational, processual, horizontal turn,” reflecting a shift across sciences and metaphysics from isolated entities to relationships and processes.
- Agency is not “something that belongs to a sovereign individual,” but arises from dynamic world relations.
- She aligns philosophy of action with developments in biology, sociology, contemporary metaphysics, and more.
“Agency is distributed, causation is shared, and no single actor ever fully acts alone.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [11:56]
4. Chapter 1: Agency as Process, Intention as Emergence
[12:15 – 19:08]
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Valmisa critiques the Western tendency to see agency as a property of individuals and intention as an “inner faculty.”
- Instead, agency is “a dynamic process emerging from interactions between networks of both human and nonhuman actors.”
- Intention emerges from “processes of explanation” via shared practices, norms, and environments.
- Intentions are “attributes of networks rather than properties hidden inside individuals.”
“Intentions are not inner mental objects... but instead, intentions emerge as part of the process through which actions become intelligible as things that we can explain, justify, and respond to.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [14:55]
5. Chapter 2: Relational Ontology & The ‘Irreductionist’ View of Things
[19:08 – 25:41]
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Drawing on Bruno Latour’s “irreductionism” and Arcimboldo’s composite portraits, Valmisa claims:
- There is “no final substratum upon which reality rests.” Things are “always found in something else”—they are networks of relations.
- Boundaries between things (e.g. “person,” “book,” “climate change”) are conventional and contingent, not essential.
- Every reduction (category, frame) is a tool, not an ontological fact, meaning that reality is inexhaustible and open-ended.
“What a thing is, it’s always found in something other than itself... its boundaries are always contingent and can always be recreated in a new way, because there is no essential core.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [20:15] -
This gaze allows us to see “magic”: new patterns and possibilities emerge by focusing on relationality.
6. Chapter 3: Powers as Relational, Contingent, Distributed
[25:41 – 33:07]
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Challenges the idea of “power” as something owned, shifting to behavior, tendencies, dispositions, and affordances arising from relational contexts.
- Efficacy emerges from collaboration with environments, materials, and tools (e.g., rowing a boat depends on water, boat design, wind—power is emergent).
- Rethinks ability/disability: abilities are not inherent, but arise from social-material arrangements; conditions can turn abilities on/off or change their meaning.
- Illustrates with examples from philosophy of disability—power, ability, and agency depend on conducive environments.
“Powers don’t belong to ourselves. But we often fail to notice these dependencies.... Walking really seems self-sufficient because our environment is curated for walking people.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [28:38] -
Appendix: Music as technology, expanding modes of experience by reorganizing relationships and powers.
7. Chapter 4: Swarm Agency, Harmonization, and Non-Coercive Cooperation
[33:07 – 38:36]
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Explores self-organizing systems (flocks, beehives, sports teams, conversations)—coordinated behavior without central control or coercion.
- Harmonization (he, 和): Ongoing, dynamic co-creation among diverse actors, with tensions and conflicts contributing productively.
- Norms and cooperation emerge in real time, not fixed in advance; failures/ruptures (e.g. refusing ritual norms) can productively reshape harmonization.
“Harmony... is actually a dynamic co-creative process in which participants with conflicting properties... adjust to each other in real time, producing effects that could not be generated by any one....”
— Mercedes Valmisa [35:30] “Conflict and tension... are necessary and productive... they actually drive the system’s adaptability and creativity.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [38:31]
8. Chapter 5: Wu Wei as Emergent, Collective Power
[38:36 – 44:09]
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Reinterprets Wu Wei (usually “non-action”) as emergent, collective action without domination or centralized control.
- Effective order arises not from rulers imposing plans but from enabling conditions for self-organization (“like flocks of birds, beehives, rituals”).
- Each participant experiences the outcome as if it were their own, though it’s a product of the whole.
- Wu Wei is paralleled to ideas in Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler about relational, non-dominating agency.
- Drawing on natural sciences: such emergent coordination is everywhere (biology, cities, molecules).
“Wu Wei is... about collective emergent action without central control or coercion.... a catalyst that allows the system emergent powers to flourish, for things to self-organize.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [41:14] “Wu Wei... is that deliberate practice of relational attentiveness and a facilitation that maximizes collective efficacy without domination.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [43:58]
9. Epilogue: Non-Cruel Optimism & Implications for Responsibility
[44:09 – 52:29]
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Valmisa’s concept of “non-cruel optimism”:
- Critiques the ideology of radical individualism as “cruel optimism” (from Lauren Berlant)—pursuing ideals (total self-determination) that actually harm collective flourishing.
- Proposes optimism rooted in relational, shared responsibility—encourages forming attachments and pursuing goals that genuinely promote flourishing, recognizing interdependence.
- In teaching, Valmisa applies these insights to stress that we must look at material, political, institutional, and social contributors to action—not just hold individuals solely responsible.
“Non-cruel optimism rejects that seductive dream of total individual self-determination and self-reliance, but... encourages us to form attachments and to pursue goals that genuinely promote... collective well-being, while also recognizing our profound interdependence as not being a negative thing, right, but making full use of it.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [47:42]
10. Concluding Thoughts & Future Work
[49:40 – 53:03]
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Valmisa hopes her ideas move beyond academia and philosophy into real-world decision-making, ethics, and politics.
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Her next project: “auto theory”—blending personal experience with philosophical theorizing to create an honest, vulnerable, pluralistic, and open-ended philosophy.
“It’s a way to write that is more honest and more vulnerable, where thinking and living happen together.... It doesn’t try to give any final definitive answers. It doesn’t even try to speak with any authority.... to reflect more freely and more honestly, maybe to connect with others, maybe even... to heal.”
— Mercedes Valmisa [52:00] -
Jessica Zhu thanks Valmisa for the richness and readability of her work, recommending it to teachers and students for its accessibility across disciplines.
Recommended Listen for: Philosophers, students of Chinese thought, scholars of agency/action, disability studies, political and social theory, and anyone interested in relational, process-based approaches to personhood and ethics.
Key Timestamps
- Author Background & Book’s Genesis: 02:24
- No Individual Actions: Agency as Collective: 06:59
- Relational-Processual Methodology: 10:31
- Agency as Dynamic Process, Intentions as Emergent: 14:46
- Irreductionism & Black Boxes: 19:08
- Powers as Relational; Disability & Environment: 25:41
- Swarm Agency; Harmonization; Conflict as Creative: 33:07
- Wu Wei as Collective Emergence: 40:43
- Non-Cruel Optimism & Responsibility: 46:33
- Future Projects (Auto Theory): 51:02
Notable Quotes
- “My actions are never just mine... always shaped by others and by broader situations and contexts.” (03:31)
- “Agency is distributed, causation is shared, and no single actor ever fully acts alone.” (11:56)
- “Intentions are not inner mental objects... intentions emerge as part of the process through which actions become intelligible....” (14:55)
- “What a thing is, it’s always found in something other than itself... there is no essential core.” (20:15)
- “Harmony... is actually a dynamic co-creative process in which participants with conflicting properties... adjust to each other in real time” (35:30)
- “Non-cruel optimism... encourages us to form attachments and to pursue goals that genuinely promote coercion while also recognizing our profound interdependence...” (47:42)
Further Reading & References
- Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, Carlos Rovelli, Ian Leustoff, disability studies, Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Lauren Berlant (Cruel Optimism), and Chinese philosophy on Wu Wei and harmonization.
End of episode recommendation:
Read All Things Act for insights not just in philosophy but for a transformational, practical framework for agency, action, and collective responsibility.