Abstract:

Collective Moral Responsibility and Collective Intention

by Tracy Isaacs

Morally responsible agents need to be able to act on the basis of intentions. Some people, such as Peter French, believe that though highly organized collective entities such as corporations are moral agents, “aggregate” collectives such as mobs are not capable of collective intentional action, and so are not morally responsible agents. I show that at least some aggregates are capable of intentional action. Therefore, at least some aggregates are morally responsible agents. I do this by arguing that collective intentions are distinct from individual intentions and are not simply collections of individual intentions. The relationships between individual intentions are important components of collective intentions, thus making collective intentions distinct from collections of individual intentions.