From Plural to Institutional Agency: Collective Action IIKirk Ludwig presents a philosophical account of institutional action, such as action by corporations and nation states, arguing that it can be understood exhaustively in terms of the agency of individuals and concepts constructed out of materials that are already at play in our understanding of individual action. He thus argues for a strong form of methodological individualism. The book provides a new account of the logical form of grammatically singular group action sentences (e.g. 'Company laid off 10,000 workers'), and features new analyses of the concepts of a constitutive rule, status function, status role, collective acceptance, and proxy agency. He also provides an analysis of the structure of corporate action, including the status of corporations as legal persons, and of the nature of state action in relation to its citizens. This is the companion volume to From Individual to Plural Agency (OUP 2016), extending the multiple-agents account of collective action set out in the earlier volume. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Plural Agency | 11 |
Singular Group Agents | 36 |
The DistributiveCollective Ambiguity in Singular Group Action Sentences | 44 |
The Apparent Autonomy of Singular Group Agents | 54 |
Essentially Intentional Action Types | 77 |
Constitutive Rules and Agency | 92 |
Status Functions as Agentive Functions | 104 |
Group Membership | 160 |
Declarations and Status Functions | 181 |
The Division of Labor and Proxy Agency | 186 |
Corporations | 213 |
Nation States | 241 |
Summary and Conclusion | 257 |
277 | |
283 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
1st Battalion action verb agentive function appropriate assigned Barack Obama bring Chapter citizens citizenship collective acceptance collective action type collective intentional action collective reading committed concept conditional intention conditional we-intentions constitutive rules context contribute convention coordination problem corporation County Chess Club defined definite description desire-independent reasons distributive reading e-members e-membership essentially intentional action event example expressed group action sentences group announcement instantiated institutional agency intentional action types intentionally involves joint action joint intentional action legal fiction logical form MCCC membership relation Monroe County Chess national anthem objects one's organization participants particular pawn perform picked plural action sentences plural group president proxy agency quantifier relevant requires rules of chess Searle sense shareholders sing the national singular group action singular group agents social transactions someone sort specific speech act spokesperson status functions status role Supreme Court things tic-tac-toe two-man saw United vote