RT Article
T1 Group Agency and Overdetermination
JF Ethical theory and moral practice
VO 16
IS 2
SP 295
OP 307
A1 Killoren, David
A2 Williams, Bekka
LA English
YR 2013
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785697250
AB A morally objectionable outcome can be overdetermined by the actions of multiple individual agents. In such cases, the outcome is the same regardless of what any individual does or does not do. (For a clear example of such a case, imagine the execution of an innocent person by a firing squad.) We argue that, in some of these types of cases, (a) there exists a group agent, a moral agent constituted by individual agents; (b) the group agent is guilty of violating a moral obligation; however, (c) none of the individual agents violate any of their moral obligations. We explicate and defend this view, and consider its applications to problems generated by anthropogenic climate change and electoral politics.
K1 electoral politics
K1 Climate Change
K1 Overdetermination
K1 Group agency
DO 10.1007/s10677-012-9336-9