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A Pragmatic Approach to Agency in Group Activity / Herman Witzel.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Practical Philosophy ; 23Publisher: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 173 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9783110628111
  • 9783110629088
  • 9783110628623
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 128/.4 23
LOC classification:
  • BD450 .W58 2020
  • BD450 .W58 2020
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Disruption of agency in group activity -- 3. Characteristics of group activity -- 4. The cutlery of agency -- 5. Kinds of agency -- Bibliography -- General index -- Index of technical terms
Summary: A Pragmatic Approach to Agency in Group Activity builds towards an action theory that explains how new forms agency develop in group activity. The approach starts from practical insights about group activity and develops a new understanding of agency from there.This study shows how practical interactions and structures in group activity disrupt individual agency. It is concluded that important features of agency can be realized on a group level. Different types of group activities are analyzed in order to better understand these mechanisms and, consequently, revisit our understanding of agency. It is argued that „intentionality,“ the key concept in individual action theory, merely serves as a pseudo-explanatory connection between specific features of agency and their realization in humans. This is contrasted with empirical research showing that how humans act is far from the idealized concept of intentionality. Consequently, intentionality as a key explanatory concept is rejected and replaced by a diverse set of features of agency for a similarly diverse set of kinds of agency. In this view, groups display new forms agency beyond individual agency without making the groups agents themselves. Such is the nature of group agency.

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Disruption of agency in group activity -- 3. Characteristics of group activity -- 4. The cutlery of agency -- 5. Kinds of agency -- Bibliography -- General index -- Index of technical terms

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http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

A Pragmatic Approach to Agency in Group Activity builds towards an action theory that explains how new forms agency develop in group activity. The approach starts from practical insights about group activity and develops a new understanding of agency from there.This study shows how practical interactions and structures in group activity disrupt individual agency. It is concluded that important features of agency can be realized on a group level. Different types of group activities are analyzed in order to better understand these mechanisms and, consequently, revisit our understanding of agency. It is argued that „intentionality,“ the key concept in individual action theory, merely serves as a pseudo-explanatory connection between specific features of agency and their realization in humans. This is contrasted with empirical research showing that how humans act is far from the idealized concept of intentionality. Consequently, intentionality as a key explanatory concept is rejected and replaced by a diverse set of features of agency for a similarly diverse set of kinds of agency. In this view, groups display new forms agency beyond individual agency without making the groups agents themselves. Such is the nature of group agency.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)