Monday, June 4th, 2018. 3:00 pm.
Venue: Carlos Santamaria Zentroa, Room A2.
Abstract:
The harmfulness of some states of affairs (e.g., the social and environmental impacts of mass tourism) is arguably a partial consequence of massive, uncoordinated patterns of human social behavior. Though the composition of those patterns is highly complex and thus perhaps precludes complete determination, we are ultimately dealing (at least) with human (interacting) agents. However, it seems odd to claim that a (trans-generational, trans-cultural) set of agents constitutes any unified collective agent (a genuine bearer of normative responses), given that any one of its members has a marginal causal role in the joint production of harmfulness. On the other hand, individual agents cannot respond just individually in the face of such complex but morally and politically significant situations. In short, we cannot deny the effects of unstructured and massive joint actions, but it seems difficult to specify any collective agent to whom we can attribute responsibility for improving the situation. To deal with that difficulty, some authors (Stephanie Collins, Holly Lawford-Smith, among others) have recently proposed an indirect way to build such a collective, through notions such as duties to collectivise or collectivisation duties. The aim of this talk is to explore some problematic features of these proposals, discussing their ambiguities, limits, and political premises and implications. Hopefully, these considerations will lead to a reflection on the nature and content(s) of personal duties in massively collective contexts.
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