Discusses the Graeco-Syriac-Arabic transmission of Nemesius of Emesa’s Περὶ φύσεως ἀνθρώπου and related texts. The focus is on the notions of istiṭāʿah (τὸ αὐτεξούσιον; τὸ ἐφ´ ἡμῖν), irāda, qaṣd and ikhtiyār (προαίρεσις) in philosophical theories of action, the reception history of the Nicomachean Ethics, and their historical and conceptual relation to homonymous notions in kalām theories of human agency.