180050 SE Collective Responsibility (2023S)

In this course, we will delve deep into the contemporary debate in analytic philosophy on collective responsibility. In our everyday talk we commonly hold groups responsible: Humanity is responsible for climate change, a riot mob is responsible for wreaking havoc in the city center, or a corporation is responsible for evading taxes. These responsibility attributions to various groups are an important part of our responsibility practices, but the exact nature of collective responsibility raises several questions.

We will look at possible answers to questions of the following kind:
- What exactly is collective responsibility? Are there different collective variants of responsibility? Is it moral, legal, causal, or outcome responsibility? Is there a forward-looking variant (i.e., collective duties)?
- What kind of groups, if any, can be collectively responsible in their own right? For example, can we blame Shell as such?
- What does it exactly mean for a group to be responsible? And what does this (potentially) imply for members of that group?
- Is it fair or coherent to hold individuals responsible for the actions of others?
- How does collective responsibility relate to other notions such as (group) agency, obligations, actions, control, knowledge, etc.?