Prof. Michael E. Bratman (Stanford University) will give an online talk in the Collective Ethics Seminar entitled 'Time\, Sociality\, Institutions: The Core Capacity Conjecture'.
\nThe talk will take place on 2 October\, from 15.15 to 16.45 CET(!) / 09.15 to 10.45 EDT. To attend the talk over Zoom\, click on the following link: https://univienna.zoom.us/j/62736288881?pwd=SndEdTNoNlZtSzJqcmpabm5NaWIyUT09.
\nAbstract:
\nTime\, Sociality\, Institutions: The Core Capacity Conjecture
Our capacity for planning agency is a core capacity that underlies interrelated forms of mind-shaped practical organization: cross-temporal organization of individual agency\, shared agency\, social rules\, and rule-guided organized institutions. Drawing on Paul Grice&rsquo\;s strategy of creature construction and on ideas from H.L.A. Hart&rsquo\;s theory of law\, I articulate a sequence of nested constructions: from temporally extended planning agency to shared agency to shared policies to social rules to rule-guided organized institutions to institutional intention and agency. We see our capacity for planning agency as part of an explanation of how we achieve these multiple\, inter-related forms of practical organization. In highlighting these forms of organizationand their grounding in our planning agency\, we go beyond the Anscombe-Davidson tradition in the philosophy of action. And we shed light on the moral and political significance of our capacity for planning agency.