I would not claim that agency requires consciousness; it is necessary only that an agent acts on its environment so as to minimize the difference between the external environment and its internal model of the preferred environment
OK.
Moral agency, however, requires both agency and self-awareness. Moral agency is not about the acting but the deciding
So you're saying that deciding requires self-awareness?
This requirement of expanded decision-making context is what makes the difference between what is seen as merely "good" (to an individual) and what is seen as "right" or "moral" (to a group.) Morality is a function of a group, not of an individual. The difference entails **agreement**, thus decision-making context greater than a single agent, thus recognition of self in order to recognize the existence of the greater context including both self and other agency.
So you're saying that if you act morally without recognizing the greater context then you are not acting morally (i.e. you are acting amorally -- without morals -- as opposed to immorally -- against morals).
I would then argue that we humans *rarely* recognize this greater context -- and then most frequently act upon this realization for the wrong reasons (i.e. fear of ostracism, punishment, etc.) instead of "moral" reasons because realistically most of us are hard-wired by evolution to feel in accordance with most of what is regarded as moral (with the exceptions often being psychopaths).
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