Getting Our Act Together: A Theory of Collective Moral Obligations

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Collective Obligations in a Nutshell
	1.1 The Starting Point
	1.2 Jointly Held Obligations
	1.3 Collectively Available Options and We-Reasoning
	1.4 Joint Ability and Ignorance
	1.5 When Do We Have Collective Obligations?
	1.6 Collective Versus Individual Obligations
2 Joint Oughts and the Agency Principle
	2.1 Joint Moral ‘Oughts’
	2.2 Motivating Collective Obligations
	2.3 Duty Collectivism and the Agency Principle
3 Joint Ability and ‘ Ought’ Implies ‘ Can’ for Pluralities of Agents
	3.1 What Is Meant by ‘Joint Ability’?
		3.1.1 The Strong View: Ability to Perform Joint Actions
		3.1.2 The Intermediate View: Joint Intentional Activity
		3.1.3 The Weak View: Combined Ability
	3.2 When Do Agents Have Joint Ability?
	3.3 Objections and Challenges
	3.4 Types of Pluralities
4 Knowing When We Have Collective Moral Obligations
	4.1 Considering Options: ‘We-Framing’ Scenarios
	4.2 Weighing Options: Substantive Ethical Theories
	4.3 Weighing Options: Non-substantive Theories of Moral Obligation
	4.4 We-Reasoning and Team-Reasoning About Obligations
	4.5 Group Knowledge
	4.6 Simplicity, Complexity: Additional Factors for Collective Moral Obligations
5 What Collective Obligations Mean for Individual Agents: Contributory Obligations, Non-compliance and Joint Blameworthiness
	5.1 Individual (Contributory) Obligations
	5.2 Failures to Comply With Collective Obligations
	5.3 Joint Blameworthiness
	5.4 The Knowledge Condition
6 A Comparison of Existing Accounts of Collective Obligations
	6.1 Meta-Criteria for a Theory of Collective Moral Obligations
	6.2 Reductionist Accounts
	6.3 Collective Moral Obligations as Obligations of Groups
	6.4 ‘Shared’ and ‘Joint’ Obligations
	6.5 Collective Moral Obligations From the Perspective of the Deliberating Agent
	6.6 In What Sense Is This Still a Collectivist View?
7 Massively Shared Obligations and Global Poverty
	7.1 Differences Between Small-Scale and Large-Scale Joint-Necessity Problems
	7.2 Global Obligations to Combat Poverty
	7.3 Large-Scale Distributive Action
	7.4 Massively Shared Collective Obligations
	7.5 Three Objections: Claimability, Enforceability and Action-Guidance
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index