Social Ontology and Collective Intentionality: Critical Essays on the Philosophy of Raimo Tuomela with His Responses (Studies in the Philosophy of Sociality Book 8)

This volume features a critical evaluation of the recent work of the philosopher, Prof. Raimo Tuomela and it also offers it offers new approaches to the collectivism-versus-individualism debate. It specifically looks at Tuomela's book Social Ontology and its accounts of collective intentionality and related topics. The book contains eight essays written by expert contributors that present different perspectives on Tuomela’s investigation into the philosophy of sociality, social ontology, theory of action, and (philosophical) decision and game theory. In addition, Tuomela himself gives a comprehensive response to each essay and defends his theory in terms of the new arguments presented here. Overall, readers will gain a deeper insight into group reasoning and the "we-mode" approach, which is used to account for collective intention and action, cooperation, group attitudes, social practices, and institutions as well as group solidarity. This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers and graduate students and researchers interested in contemporary philosophy of sociality, sociological theory, social ontology as well as the philosophy of mind, decision and game theory, and cognitive science. __Tuomela’s book stands as a model of excellence in social ontology, an especially intractable field of philosophical inquiry that benefits conspicuously from the devotion of Tuomela’s keen philosophical mind. His book is must reading in social ontology.__ J. Angelo Corlett, Julia Lyons Strobel Contents 6 Contributors 8 Introduction 10 Presentation of Social Ontology: Collective Intentionality and Group Agents 10 References 14 Part I: Collective Intentionality, Membership, and Reasoning 16 Chapter 1: Methodological Individualism, The We-mode, and Team Reasoning 17 1.1 Introduction 17 1.2 Methodological Individualism 18 1.3 The Irreducibility Thesis 18 1.4 Reductive Satisfaction of the We-Mode Criteria and Construction of Thick Group-Centric We-Mode Concepts 20 1.5 Objections to Reducibility 23 1.6 Conclusion 31 References 31 Chapter 2: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Kirk Ludwig 33 2.1 Response to Kirk Ludwig 33 2.1.1 The Argument from Team Reasoning 43 References 49 Chapter 3: What is a Mode Account of Collective Intentionality? 50 3.1 Mode vs. Content and Subject Approaches to Collective Intentionality 50 3.2 What Is the We-Mode and When? 52 3.3 We-Mode and the Ontology of Groups and Group Agents 54 3.4 Some Problems for the Mode Account of SOCIAGA 57 3.5 Mode as Representational 61 3.6 The Mode of Joint Attention: The RAIMO Account 66 3.7 From Joint Attention to We-Mode and Role-Mode 71 3.8 Subject Mode and the Ontology of Collective Subjects 77 References 81 Chapter 4: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Michael Schmitz 84 4.1 Response to Michael Schmitz 84 References 91 Chapter 5: What Kind of Mode is the We-Mode? 92 5.1 Motivating the Mode-Account 94 5.2 The Mode as Content 97 5.3 The Mode as Subject 101 References 106 Chapter 6: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Bernhard Schmid 107 6.1 Response to Bernhard Schmid 107 Chapter 7: Voluntary Groups, Noncompliance, and Conflicts of Reason: Tuomela on Acting as a Group-Member 109 7.1 Should I Stay or Should I go? Deliberating About Contributing to a Group Action 110 7.2 Tuomela on ‘Proper Group Members’ 113 7.3 Two Further Cases of Conflicting Reasons 119 7.4 Are ‘We-Moders’ Just Immaculate Sheep? 122 References 123 Chapter 8: Raimo Tuomela: Response to David Schweikard 124 8.1 Response to David P. Schweikard 124 Chapter 9: Planning in the We-mode 127 9.1 Introduction 127 9.2 Importance of Planning for Rational Agency 130 9.3 Planning for Group Agents 137 9.4 Conclusions 148 References 149 Chapter 10: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Raul Hakli and Pekka Mäkelä 151 10.1 Response to Raul Hakli and Pekka Mäkelä 151 References 154 Part II: Social Ontology and Social Institutions 155 Chapter 11: We-Mode Collective Intentionality and Its Place in Social Reality 156 11.1 The Collective Intentionality–Approach: Irrealism, Perspectivalism, Realism 157 11.2 Groups Are Real Systems and Fictitious Agents, but Are They Real or Fictitious as Centers of Rights and Responsibilities? 162 11.3 What Is the “We-Mode”? 165 11.3.1 We-Mode Groups 165 11.3.2 Acting in the We-Mode and in an “Overall Mode” 169 11.4 Conclusion: Some Open Questions 175 References 175 Chapter 12: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Arto Laitinen 177 12.1 Response to Arto Laitinen 177 Chapter 13: Tuomela Meets Burge. Another Argument for Anti-Individualism 187 13.1 Introduction 187 13.2 Burge’s Arguments for Anti-Individualism 189 13.3 A New Argument for Anti-Individualism 193 13.4 Discussion of the Argument 195 13.5 Conclusion 198 References 199 Chapter 14: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Martin Rechenauer 200 14.1 Response to Martin Rechenauer 200 References 203 Chapter 15: Group Agents and Social Institutions: Beyond Tuomela’s Social Ontology 204 15.1 Group Agents 205 15.1.1 Conceptual Collectivism: The We-Mode 205 15.1.2 Ontological Individualism: Extrinsic Intentionality 206 15.1.3 Why Not Embrace Ontological Collectivism? 207 15.2 Social Institutions 209 15.2.1 Norm-Governed Social Practices 209 15.2.2 Institutions Constrain and Enable: Regulative and Constitutive Rules 210 15.2.3 Can Regulative Rules Enable New Forms of Behavior? 213 15.3 Conclusion 215 References 216 Chapter 16: Raimo Tuomela: Response to Frank Hindriks 218 16.1 Response to Frank Hindriks 218 References 224 Index 225 Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Methodological Individualism, The We-mode, and Team Reasoning....Pages 3-18 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Kirk Ludwig....Pages 19-35 What is a Mode Account of Collective Intentionality?....Pages 37-70 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Michael Schmitz....Pages 71-78 What Kind of Mode is the We-Mode?....Pages 79-93 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Bernhard Schmid....Pages 95-96 Voluntary Groups, Noncompliance, and Conflicts of Reason: Tuomela on Acting as a Group-Member....Pages 97-111 Raimo Tuomela: Response to David Schweikard....Pages 113-115 Planning in the We-mode....Pages 117-140 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Raul Hakli and Pekka Mäkelä....Pages 141-144 Front Matter....Pages 145-145 We-Mode Collective Intentionality and Its Place in Social Reality....Pages 147-167 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Arto Laitinen....Pages 169-178 Tuomela Meets Burge. Another Argument for Anti-Individualism....Pages 179-191 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Martin Rechenauer ....Pages 193-196 Group Agents and Social Institutions: Beyond Tuomela’s Social Ontology ....Pages 197-210 Raimo Tuomela: Response to Frank Hindriks....Pages 211-217 Back Matter....Pages 219-220