Group responsibility and historicism

Stephanie Collins, Niels De Haan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the moral responsibility of organized groups in light of historicism. Historicism is the view that any morally responsible agent must satisfy certain historical conditions, such as not having been manipulated. We set out four examples involving morally responsible organized groups that pose problems for existing accounts of historicism. We then pose a trilemma: one can reject group responsibility, reject historicism, or revise historicism. We pursue the third option. We formulate a Manipulation Condition and a Guarding Condition as addendums to historicism that are necessary to accommodate our cases of group responsibility.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)754-776
Number of pages23
JournalThe Philosophical Quarterly
Volume74
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2024

Keywords

  • corporate responsibility
  • group agency
  • group responsibility
  • historicism
  • moral responsibility
  • organized groups
  • structuralism

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