Group Agency: The Possibility, Design, and Status of Corporate Agents
Author(s): Christian List (Author), Philip Pettit
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 19 May 2013
Edition: Illustrated
Language: English
Print length: 238 pages
ISBN-10: 0199679673
ISBN-13: 9780199679676
Book Description
Are companies, churches, and states genuine agents? Or are they just collections of individual agents that give a misleading impression of unity? This question is important, since the answer dictates how we should go about explaining the behaviour of these entities and whether we should treat them as responsible and accountable in the manner of individuals. Group Agency offers a new approach to that question and is relevant, therefore, in a range of fields from philosophy to law, politics, and the social sciences. Christian List and Philip Pettit take the line that there really are group or corporate agents, over and above the individual agents who compose them, and that a proper social science and a proper approach to law, morality, and politics have to 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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Without a doubt, List and Pettit accomplish their threefold task of establishing the logical possibility of group agents, explaining the relation of design to the performance of group agents, and arguing in favour of holding these agents morally responsible … there is a great deal to learn from this book and it ought to be required reading for anyone interested in group agency and responsibility. ― Zachary J. Goldberg, The Philosophical QuarterlyGroup Agency is convincing and illuminating. ― David-Hillel Ruben, Times Literary Supplement
fascinating and enjoyable … there is much to ponder, and much to learn from, in this lively work. ―
Thomas H. Smith, Mind
the judgement aggregation problem is a significant and neglected aspect of group agency, and List and Pettits discussion of this problem is important and enlightening. ―
Robert Sugden, Economics and Philosophy
Book Description
A ground-breaking study of how society works
About the Author
Christian List is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at the London School of Economics. He works in individual and social choice theory, political philosophy, and the philosophy of social science. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he held research and visiting positions at Oxford, the Australian National University, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Konstanz. He was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in Philosophy, a Nuffield Foundation New Career Development Fellowship, and the 5th Social Choice and Welfare Prize, the latter two awards jointly with Franz Dietrich, for collaborative work on the theory of judgment aggregation. He is an editor of Economics and Philosophy and an associate editor of Episteme.
Philip Pettit is L. S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University. He works in moral and political philosophy and on related issues in the philosophy of mind and social science. Irish by background and training, he has taught at a number of universities, most prominently at the Australian National University, and is an honorary Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s Belfast and the University of Sydney. He holds a number of honorary doctorates and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010 he won a Guggenheim fellowship and is spending 2010-11 at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Stanford University. In 2007 Oxford University Press published
Common Minds: Themes from the Philosophy of Philip Pettit, ed. by G.Brennan et al.
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