Time, Sociality, Institutions: The Core Capacity Conjecture

Michael Bratman (Stanford University)

Prof. Michael E. Bratman (Stanford University) will give an online talk in the Collective Ethics Seminar entitled 'Time, Sociality, Institutions: The Core Capacity Conjecture'.

The 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.

Abstract:

Time, 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’s strategy of creature construction and on ideas from H.L.A. Hart’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.