Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions

Philip Pettit

doi:10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x

Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions

Philip Pettit

Center for Human Values

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

Group agents have been represented as expressive fictions by those who treat ascriptions of agency to groups as metaphorical; as pragmatic fictions by those who think that the agency ascribed to groups belongs in the first place to a distinct individual or set of individuals; and as theoretical fictions by those who think that postulating group agents serves no indispensable role in our theory of the social world. This paper identifies, criticizes and rejects each of these views, defending a strong realist position.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1641-1662
Number of pages	22
Journal	Erkenntnis
Volume	79
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x
State	Published - Oct 16 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Philosophy
Logic

Access to Document

10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x

Cite this

@article{cbcfeab2b6914ecc861334869e5eb3f9,

title = "Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions",

abstract = "Group agents have been represented as expressive fictions by those who treat ascriptions of agency to groups as metaphorical; as pragmatic fictions by those who think that the agency ascribed to groups belongs in the first place to a distinct individual or set of individuals; and as theoretical fictions by those who think that postulating group agents serves no indispensable role in our theory of the social world. This paper identifies, criticizes and rejects each of these views, defending a strong realist position.",

author = "Philip Pettit",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.",

year = "2014",

month = oct,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "79",

pages = "1641--1662",

journal = "Erkenntnis",

issn = "0165-0106",

publisher = "Springer Netherlands",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions

AU - Pettit, Philip

PY - 2014/10/16

Y1 - 2014/10/16

N2 - Group agents have been represented as expressive fictions by those who treat ascriptions of agency to groups as metaphorical; as pragmatic fictions by those who think that the agency ascribed to groups belongs in the first place to a distinct individual or set of individuals; and as theoretical fictions by those who think that postulating group agents serves no indispensable role in our theory of the social world. This paper identifies, criticizes and rejects each of these views, defending a strong realist position.

AB - Group agents have been represented as expressive fictions by those who treat ascriptions of agency to groups as metaphorical; as pragmatic fictions by those who think that the agency ascribed to groups belongs in the first place to a distinct individual or set of individuals; and as theoretical fictions by those who think that postulating group agents serves no indispensable role in our theory of the social world. This paper identifies, criticizes and rejects each of these views, defending a strong realist position.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84912013203&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84912013203&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x

DO - 10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84912013203

SN - 0165-0106

VL - 79

SP - 1641

EP - 1662

JO - Erkenntnis

JF - Erkenntnis

ER -

Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this