Groups as Agents (eBook)

Deborah Tollefsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Group Belief

2. Group Intention

3. Group Agency

4. Group Cognition

5. Interpreting Groups

6. The Moral Responsibility of Groups

Conclusion

Notes

References

Index

?This eminently readable book does a great job on two fronts. It
opens up the issues of joint intentionality, group agency, and
collective responsibility, introducing readers to the many
perspectives found in this rapidly emerging field, and it offers a
fine, accessible statement of the distinctive views that the author
herself has developed on those issues.?

Philip Pettit, Princeton University and the Australian National
University

?In this outstanding new book, Deborah Tollefsen analyses group
belief and agency while at each stage clearly articulating the
relation between groups and individuals. She critically evaluates
all the major philosophical theories of group cognition and
develops her own novel, integrative framework anchored in our
everyday practices of interpreting the actions of groups.
Tollefsen?s accessible work has implications for ethics and the
law, for psychology and for social theory, effectively bringing
philosophy to life.?

John Sutton, Macquarie University

?Deborah Tollefsen is well versed in the contemporary
philosophical debates about, to put it broadly, the mentality of
groups. This book is a thoughtful and clearly written introduction
to these debates. Tollefsen also offers her own perspective, one
which engages with the notion of mentality itself.?

Margaret Gilbert, University of California, Irvine