Group agency : the possibility, design, and status of corporate agents / Christian List and Philip Pettit.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

List, Christian.

Contributor:

Pettit, Philip, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agent (Philosophy).

Group identity.

Social choice.

Juristic persons.

Physical Description:

ix, 238 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Are companies, churches, and states genuine agents? Or are they just collections of individuals that give a misleading impression of unity? This question is important, since the answer dictates how we should explain the behaviour of these entities and whether we should treat them as responsible and accountable on the model of individual agents. Group Agency offers a new approach to that question and is relevant, therefore, to a range of fields from philosophy to law, politics, and the social sciences. Christian list and Philip Pettit argue that there really are group or corporate agents, over and above the individual agents who compose them, and that a proper approach to the social sciences, law, morality, and politics must take account of this fact. Unlike some earlier defences of group agency, their account is entirely unmysterious in character and, despite not being technically difficult, is grounded in cutting-edge work in social choice theory, economics, and philosophy. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The Logical Possibility of Group Agents

1 The Conditions of Agency 19

1.1 A basic account of agency 19

1.2 Complications in agency 25

1.3 The idea of group agency 31

2 The Aggregation of Intentional Attitudes 42

2.1 A paradox of majoritarian attitude aggregation 43

2.2 An impossibility result 47

2.3 Escape routes from the impossibility 51

3 The Structure of Group Agents 59

3.1 The organizational structure of a group agent 60

3.2 The supervenience of a group agent 64

3.3 The unmysterious autonomy of the group agent 73

Part II The Organizational Design of Group Agents

4 The Epistemic Desideratum 81

4.1 Formulating the epistemic desideratum 82

4.2 Satisfying the epistemic desideratum 86

4.3 Complications 97

5 The Incentive-Compatibility Desideratum 104

5.1 Formulating the incentive-compatibility desideratum 105

5.2 Satisfying the incentive-compatibility desideratum 109

5.3 Two routes to incentive compatibility 124

6 The Control Desideratum 129

6.1 Formulating the control desideratum 129

6.2 Satisfying the control desideratum 136

6.3 Broader lessons 144

Part III The Normative Status of Group Agents

7 Holding Group Agents Responsible 153

7.1 Fitness to be held responsible 153

7.2 The fitness of group agents to be held responsible 158

7.3 Individual and corporate responsibility 163

8 Personifying Group Agents l70

8.1 The conception of personhood 170

8.2 Group agents as persons 174

8.3 Group persons and respect 178

9 Identifying With Group Agents 186

9.1 Identification and self-identification 186

9.2 Corporate identification and self-identification 191

9.3 Multiple identities 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [202]-229 and indexes.

ISBN:

9780199591565

0199591563

OCLC:

671709715