Collective Goals
An outcome is a collective goal of two or more actions involving multiple agents just if the actions are directed to this goal and this is not, or not just, a matter of each action being individually directed to that goal.
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Notes
Key Notions
A goal is an outcome to which one or more actions are directed. Someone might say, for example, ‘the goal of our actions is to free Nelson Mandela.’ Note that a goal is not an intention, nor any mental state of the agents. (At least, not usually.) The freedom of Nelson Mandela is not a mental state of those who ensured his freedom.
An outcome is a collective goal of two or more actions involving multiple agents if it is an outcome to which those actions are directed where this is not, or not only, a matter of each action being directed to the outcome.
Can you give sufficient conditions for there to be a collective goal? Yes!
If there is a single outcome, G, such that
- Our actions are coordinated; and
- coordination of this type would normally increase the probability that G occurs.
then there is an outcome to which our actions are directed where this is not, or not only, a matter of each action being directed to that outcome, i.e. our actions have a collective goal.
Question for a theory of joint action: In virtue of what could two or more agents’ actions have a collective goal?
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