Matt Rachar, "Better Together: Shared Agency vs. Strategic Interaction"

Matt Rachar, Douglas College

Center for Global Ethics and Politics on November 7, 2023

Better Together: Shared Agency vs. Strategic Interaction

Can we explain the things we do with others solely based on our preferences and expectations of how others will act? If so, then a standard version of game theory might suffice and our collective undertakings are a kind of strategic interaction. But many philosophers disagree, instead arguing that we sometimes engage in a more robust form of sociality, shared agency, which is grounded in a shared intention. A shared intention guides our downstream behaviors in ways that are not fully explainable in standard game-theoretic terms—we are disposed to help others fulfil their roles, filter out inconsistent options, and engage in shared deliberation and negotiation. This talk brings empirical results to bear on the philosopher’s appeal, first to assess whether people distinguish between these two forms of sociality and then to evaluate whether there is a special package of norms associated with one or the other. It concludes that there is a widely shared norm of answerability in shared agency that is absent in strategic interaction, a norm that has important consequences for tackling global issues whose resolution depends on collective action.

Видео Matt Rachar, "Better Together: Shared Agency vs. Strategic Interaction" канала Center for Global Ethics and Politics