Getting Our Act Together: A Theory of Collective Moral Obligations

The 2022 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award was won by "Getting Out Act Together: A Theory of Collective Moral Obligations." This book develops an original theory of collective moral obligations that individual moral agents hold jointly but not as unified collective agents. It suggests that to think of some of our obligations as joint or collective is the best way of making sense of our intuitions regarding collective moral action problems. The book concludes with a discussion of massively shared obligations to major-scale moral problems such as global poverty.

Format: Hardback
Length: 174 pages
Publication date: 31 December 2020
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Winner of the 2022 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award, this groundbreaking book explores the concept of collective moral obligations. It challenges the traditional notion of unified collective agents and proposes that individual moral agents hold these obligations jointly. The theory does not introduce a new type of moral obligation but suggests that viewing certain obligations as joint or collective is the most effective way to understand our intuitions about collective moral action problems.

Where there is reason to believe that our efforts are most efficient as part of a collective endeavor, we may incur collective obligations with others who are similarly situated, as long as we can establish feasible individual contributory strategies towards that goal. The book concludes with a discussion of massively shared obligations to major-scale moral problems such as global poverty.

This thought-provoking work will appeal to researchers and advanced students in moral, political, and social philosophy, philosophy of action, social epistemology, and philosophy of social science. It offers a fresh perspective on the nature of collective moral responsibility and sheds light on the ways in which we can work together to address pressing social and ethical challenges.

Weight: 420g
Dimension: 158 x 235 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367561123