Philosophical Studies 177 (4):1085-1109 (2020)
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Abstract |
Individualists claim that collective obligations are reducible to the individual obligations of the collective’s members. Collectivists deny this. We set out to discover who is right by way of a deontic logic of collective action that models collective actions, abilities, obligations, and their interrelations. On the basis of our formal analysis, we argue that when assessing the obligations of an individual agent, we need to distinguish individual obligations from member obligations. If a collective has a collective obligation to bring about a particular state of affairs, then it might be that no individual in the collective has an individual obligation to bring about that state of affairs. What follows from a collective obligation is that each member of the collective has a member obligation to help ensure that the collective fulfills its collective obligation. In conclusion, we argue that our formal analysis supports collectivism.
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Keywords | Collective obligation Collective responsibilty Collectivism Individualism Deontic logic Game theory |
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DOI | 10.1007/s11098-018-01236-2 |
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References found in this work BETA
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Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason.Michael Bratman - 1987 - Cambridge: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Facing the Future: Agents and Choices in Our Indeterminist World.Nuel Belnap - 2001 - Oxford University Press on Demand.
Collective Intentions and Actions.John Searle - 1990 - In Philip R. Cohen Jerry Morgan & Martha Pollack (eds.), Intentions in Communication. MIT Press. pp. 401-415.
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Citations of this work BETA
Expressivity Results for Deontic Logics of Collective Agency.Allard Tamminga, Hein Duijf & Frederik Van De Putte - 2020 - Synthese 198 (9):8733-8753.
Why (Some) Corporations Have Positive Duties to (Some of) the Global Poor.Tadhg Ó Laoghaire - forthcoming - Journal of Business Ethics:1-15.
An impossibility result on methodological individualism.Hein Duijf, Allard Tamminga & Frederik Van De Putte - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 178 (12):4165-4185.
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