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

39 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

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10.1007/s10670-014-9633-x

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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.",

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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.

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Group Agents are Not Expressive, Pragmatic or Theoretical Fictions

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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