PART ONE: MATERIALS AND ARGUMENTS/Everyday Discourse/`Choice' and `Agency' in Social Theory/A Brief Digression on Attribution/On Individualism in Social Theory/Transcending Individualism/PART TWO: SPECULATIONS AND EVALUATIONS/`Agency' and `Responsibility' in Sociological Theory/Agency Responsibility and New Human Biotechnologies/Rational Agents in Differentiated Societies/On the Fine Line between State and Status