Sharing space: The synchronic identity of social groups
Philosophy of the Social Sciences 36 (2):131-148 (2006)
| Abstract | Taking ontological realism about social groups as the thesis that groups are composite material objects constituted by their members, this paper considers a challenge to the very possibility that groups be regarded as material entities. Ordinarily we believe that two groups can have synchronic co-extensive memberships—for example, the choir and the rugby team—while preserving their distinctive identity conditions. We also doubt that two objects of the same kind can be in the same place at the same time, which would appear to be the case when groups have identical memberships. I explain that the principle denying the synchronic co-location of objects of the same kind need not apply universally to material objects and that it is a mistake to take resistance to penetrability as a necessary feature of materiality. Therefore, initial appearances notwithstanding, groups can be in the same place at the same time. Key Words: identity • materiality • location • social group. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,865 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesNikk Effingham (2010). The Metaphysics of Groups. Philosophical Studies 149 (2).
Leonard Harris (1997). Alain Locke and Community. Journal of Ethics 1 (3):239-247.
Karen Kovach (2010). The Moral Legacy of Communal Wrongs: Ethnic Identity Groups and Intergenerational Moral Sentiment. Metaphilosophy 41 (4):618-638.
John Lawrence (1986). Tarski's Problem for Varieties of Groups with a Commutator Identity. Journal of Symbolic Logic 51 (1):75-78.
Margaret P. Gilbert (2001). Sociality, Unity, Objectivity. The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 11:153-160.
Martha Nussbaum (2003). The Complexity of Groups: A Comment on Jorge Valadez. Philosophy and Social Criticism 29 (1):57-69.
Paul Sheehy (2003). Social Groups, Explanation and Ontological Holism. Philosophical Papers 32 (2):193-224.
Paul Sheehy (2006). Holding Them Responsible. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 30 (1):74–93.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads6 ( #147,054 of 556,790 )Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
