Groups, Sympathy, and the Second Person

Nicolai Krejberg Knudsen (Aarhus University)

Nicolai Knudsen (Aarhus; https://www.nicolaiknudsen.com/) will give a self-standing talk entitled "Groups, Sympathy, and the Second Person" on Tuesday December 5, 13:15-15:00 at the University of Gothenburg. Everyone is welcome!

Abstract: We often hold people accountable for acting on second-person reasons, but under which conditions, if any, are groups fit to be held accountable for acting on second-person reasons? In this talk, I argue that groups are second-personally competent if and only if they have emergent capacities for sympathy, for acting on that sympathy, and for self-reactive attitudes. Focusing especially on loosely structured groups without decision-making procedures, I argue that the required capacities can emerge out of and be realized by the interdependent exercise of functionally similar member-level capacities.