
Moral Duties Are Regularly Attributed To Groups. In The Media Or On The Street, We Might Hear That A Specific Country Has A Moral Duty To Defend Human Rights, That Environmentalists Have A Moral Duty To Push For Global Systemic Reform, Or That The Affluent Have A Moral Duty To Alleviate Poverty. Do Such Attributions Make Conceptual Sense Or Are They Mere Political Rhetoric? And What Does That Imply For The Individual Members Of These Groups? Group Duties Offers The First Comprehensive Answer To These Questions. Stephanie Collins Defends A Tripartite Model Of Group Duties - So-called Because It Divides Groups Into Three Fundamental Categories. First, We Have Combinations - Collections Of Agents That Don't Have Any Goals Or Decision-making Procedures In Common. These Groups Cannot Bear Moral Duties. Instead, We Should Re-cast Their Purported Duties As A Series Of Duties, One Held By Each Agent In The Combination. Each Duty Demands Its Bearer To 'i-reason': To Do The Best They Can, Given Whatever They Happen To Believe The Others Will Do. Second, There Are Groups Whose Members Share Goals But Lack Decision-making Procedures. These Are Coalitions. Coalitions Also Cannot Bear Duties, But Their Alleged Duties Should Be Replaced With Members' Several Duties To 'we-reason': To Do One's Part In A Particular Group Pattern Of Actions, On The Presumption That Others Will Do Likewise. Third And Finally, Collectives Have Group-level Procedures For Making Decisions. They Can Bear Duties. Collectives' Duties Imply Duties For Collectives' Members To Use Their Role In The Collective With A View To The Collective Doing Its Duty. With The Tripartite Model In-hand, Collins Argues That We Can Target Our Political Demands At The Right Entities, In The Right Way, For The Right Reasons.
This book investigates whether moral duties can be meaningfully attributed to groups or if such claims are merely political rhetoric. Stephanie Collins, a scholar in moral and political philosophy, develops a tripartite model to categorize groups based on their internal structure and decision-making capabilities. By distinguishing between combinations, coalitions, and collectives, she provides a framework for determining which entities can bear moral responsibility and how individual members should act in relation to these group-level obligations.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts in political philosophy recognize this work as a rigorous attempt to formalize the conceptual boundaries of collective agency. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for those already familiar with contemporary debates in moral responsibility.
Page Count:
240
Publication Date:
2019-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0192576577
ISBN-13:
9780192576576
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