Description
Book SynopsisThis new essay collection by distinguished philosopher Margaret Gilbert provides a richly textured argument for the importance of joint commitment in our personal and public lives. Topics covered by these diverse essays range from marital love to patriotism, from promissory obligation to the unity of the European Union.
Trade ReviewAs Gilbert sees it, joint commitments are centrally constitutive of collective actions and attitudes, the practice of promising, conventions, political obligations and so on as per the above set of chapter headings. As the sub-title suggests, joint commitment is evidently by her lights the most fundamental social concept. As is fitting, she applies it in a wide variety of contexts, and the result is a wide-ranging and lively set of essays. Importantly, she applies her theoretical notion to questions in political philosophy and thereby connects abstract theory to real world concerns, something most theorists in this sub-field have not yet done. While many of the essays are well-known to those working in the field, it is useful to have them collected in one place, not the least because it facilitates development of an overview of her oeuvre. * Seumas Miller, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
a valuable resource to scholars in a variety of disciplines, as well as ordinary people, who have an interest in the everyday phenomena that Gilbert discusses with much insight and illumination...an enjoyable read and can be recommended to a broad-ranging audience. * Matti Heinonen, Journal of Social Ontology *
Table of ContentsCONTENTS ; PREFACE ; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ; SOURCES ; INTRODUCTION ; PART I SHARED AGENCY ; Ch. 1 Acting Together ; Ch. 2 Considerations on Joint Commitment ; Ch. 3 Who's to Blame? ; Ch. 4 Rationality in Collective Action ; Ch. 5 Two Approaches to Shared Intention ; PART II COLLECTIVE ATTITUDES ; Ch. 6 Belief and Acceptance as Features of Groups ; Ch. 7 Collective Epistemology ; Ch. 8 Shared Values, Social Unity, and Liberty ; Ch. 9 Social Convention Revisited ; Ch. 10 Collective Guilt Feelings ; PART III MUTUAL RECOGNITION, PROMISES, AND LOVE ; Ch. 11 "Fusion": a contractual model ; Ch. 12 The problem of promisees' rights ; Ch. 13 Three dogmas about promising ; Ch. 14 Mutual Recognition ; PART IV POLITICAL LIFE ; Ch. 15 A Real Unity of Them All ; Ch. 16 Pro Patria: an Essay on Patriotism ; Ch. 17 De-moralizing Political Obligation ; Ch. 18 Commands and Their Practical Import ; BIBLIOGRAPHY OF AUTHOR'S WORKS ; INDEX
