Joint Commitment: How We Make the Social World

by Margaret Gilbert

Overview

In this wide-ranging collection of essays, distinguished philosopher Margaret Gilbert investigates the structure of our social world. People often speak of what we do, think, and feel, and of our values, conventions, and laws. Asking what we mean by such talk, Gilbert invokes the foundational idea of joint commitment. She applies this idea to topics ranging from the mutual recognition of two people to the unity of the European Union, from marital love to patriotism, from promissory obligation to the rights of those who issue authoritative commands. Written clearly and without undue technicality, this richly textured collection of essays makes a powerful argument for the importance of joint commitment in our personal and public lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190251956
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	466
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Margaret Gilbert is Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. A founding figure in contemporary philosophy of social phenomena, her work has applications within moral, political and legal philosophy and social and political science. Her many books include On Social Facts (1989), Sociality and Responsibility (2000), and A Theory of Political Obligation (2006). She has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and held other distinguished research and teaching positions in the United States, Europe, and Scandinavia. CONTENTS

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SOURCES
INTRODUCTION

PART I SHARED AGENCY
Ch. 1 Acting Together
Ch. 2 Considerations on Joint Commitment
Ch. 3 Who's to Blame?
Ch. 4 Rationality in Collective Action
Ch. 5 Two Approaches to Shared Intention

PART II COLLECTIVE ATTITUDES
Ch. 6 Belief and Acceptance as Features of Groups
Ch. 7 Collective Epistemology
Ch. 8 Shared Values, Social Unity, and Liberty
Ch. 9 Social Convention Revisited
Ch. 10 Collective Guilt Feelings

PART III MUTUAL RECOGNITION, PROMISES, AND LOVE
Ch. 11 "Fusion": a contractual model
Ch. 12 The problem of promisees' rights
Ch. 13 Three dogmas about promising
Ch. 14 Mutual Recognition

PART IV POLITICAL LIFE
Ch. 15 A Real Unity of Them All
Ch. 16 Pro Patria: an Essay on Patriotism
Ch. 17 De-moralizing Political Obligation
Ch. 18 Commands and Their Practical Import

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF AUTHOR'S WORKS
INDEX

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SOURCES
INTRODUCTION

PART I SHARED AGENCY
Ch. 1 Acting Together
Ch. 2 Considerations on Joint Commitment
Ch. 3 Who's to Blame?
Ch. 4 Rationality in Collective Action
Ch. 5 Two Approaches to Shared Intention

PART II COLLECTIVE ATTITUDES
Ch. 6 Belief and Acceptance as Features of Groups
Ch. 7 Collective Epistemology
Ch. 8 Shared Values, Social Unity, and Liberty
Ch. 9 Social Convention Revisited
Ch. 10 Collective Guilt Feelings

PART III MUTUAL RECOGNITION, PROMISES, AND LOVE
Ch. 11 "Fusion": a contractual model
Ch. 12 The problem of promisees' rights
Ch. 13 Three dogmas about promising
Ch. 14 Mutual Recognition

PART IV POLITICAL LIFE
Ch. 15 A Real Unity of Them All
Ch. 16 Pro Patria: an Essay on Patriotism
Ch. 17 De-moralizing Political Obligation
Ch. 18 Commands and Their Practical Import

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF AUTHOR'S WORKS
INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"As Gilbert sees it, joint commitments are centrally constitutive of collective actions and attitudes, the practice of promising, conventions, political obligations and so on as per the above set of chapter headings. As the sub-title suggests, joint commitment is evidently by her lights the most fundamental social concept. As is fitting, she applies it in a wide variety of contexts, and the result is a wide-ranging and lively set of essays. Importantly, she applies her theoretical notion to questions in political philosophy and thereby connects abstract theory to real world concerns, something most theorists in this sub-field have not yet done. While many of the essays are well-known to those working in the field, it is useful to have them collected in one place, not the least because it facilitates development of an overview of her oeuvre."-Seumas Miller, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Joint Commitment provides a rich account of how the social world comes into being through the activities in which we regularly engage...Gilbert has provided compelling considerations in favor of including both personal and joint commitments in our discussion of rational agency along with the familiar talk of reasons, endorsements, and the like." — Ethics

From the Publisher