Social Ontology: Collective Intentionality and Group Agents

Social ontology, in its broadest sense, is the study of the nature of social reality, including collective intentions and agency. The starting point of Tuomela's account of collective intentionality is the distinction between thinking and acting as a private person (I-mode) versus as a
we-thinking group member (we-mode). The we-mode approach is based on social groups consisting of persons, which may range from simple task groups consisting of a few persons to corporations and even to political states. Tuomela extends the we-mode notion to cover groups controlled by external
authority. Thus, for instance, cooperation and attitude formation are studied in cases where the participants are governed from above as in many corporations.

The volume goes on to present a systematic philosophical theory related to the collectivism-versus-individualism debate in the social sciences. A weak version of collectivism (the we-mode approach) depends on group-based collective intentionality. We-mode collective intentionality is not
individualistically reducible and is needed to complement individualistic accounts in social scientific theorizing. The we-mode approach is used in the book to account for collective intention and action, cooperation, group attitudes, and social practices and institutions, as well as group
solidarity. Tuomela establishes the first complete theory of group reasons (in the sense of members' reasons for participation in group activities). The book argues in terms of game-theoretical group-reasoning that the kind of weak collectivism that the we-mode approach involves is both conceptually
and rational-functionally different from what an individualistic approach (pro-group I-mode approach) entails.


Author: Raimo Tuomela
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 09/24/2013
Pages: 326
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780199978267

About the Author

Raimo Tuomela is Professor Emeritus of Social and Moral Philosophy at the University of Helsinki and permanent visiting professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Munich. He holds Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from the University of Helsinki and Stanford University. His previous works include The Philosophy of Sociality: The Shared Point of View (OUP 2007), The Philosophy of Social Practices (2002), Cooperation: A Philosophical Study (2000), and The Importance of Us (1995). Currently Tuomela functions as the president of the International Social Ontology Society.

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