A Pragmatic Approach to Agency in Group Activity / Herman Witzel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Witzel, Herman, Author.

Series:

Practical philosophy ; Volume 23.

Practical Philosophy ; 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intentionality (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 172 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A Pragmatic Approach to Agency in Group Activity builds towards an action theory that explains how new forms agency develop in group activity. The approach starts from practical insights about group activity and develops a new understanding of agency from there.This study shows how practical interactions and structures in group activity disrupt individual agency. It is concluded that important features of agency can be realized on a group level. Different types of group activities are analyzed in order to better understand these mechanisms and, consequently, revisit our understanding of agency. It is argued that "intentionality," the key concept in individual action theory, merely serves as a pseudo-explanatory connection between specific features of agency and their realization in humans. This is contrasted with empirical research showing that how humans act is far from the idealized concept of intentionality. Consequently, intentionality as a key explanatory concept is rejected and replaced by a diverse set of features of agency for a similarly diverse set of kinds of agency. In this view, groups display new forms agency beyond individual agency without making the groups agents themselves. Such is the nature of group agency.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Disruption of agency in group activity

3. Characteristics of group activity

4. The cutlery of agency

5. Kinds of agency

Bibliography

General index

Index of technical terms

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

3-11-062862-7

OCLC:

1129178243