Temporal ontology and joint action

The aim of the paper is to describe the temporal ontology of that basic manifestation of social agency that is the living of life together. The distinction between states, processes and events is clarified. There are notions of 'doing things together' that fall into each of these temporal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Inquiry (Oslo) 2024-04, Vol.67 (4), p.1170-1192
Main Author: Crowther, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Collective action
events
Friendship
Human agency
joint action
Life
Ontology
Philosophy
processes
shared intention
Social interaction
states
Temporal ontology
Time
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Summary:The aim of the paper is to describe the temporal ontology of that basic manifestation of social agency that is the living of life together. The distinction between states, processes and events is clarified. There are notions of 'doing things together' that fall into each of these temporal categories. The ontology of the state of friendship is examined as one instance of living life together. Friendship is a state of community between agents that is sustained by a continuity of processes and events that are characteristic manifestations of the state, some (but not all) of which are processes of doing things together. The continuity of processes and events involved in friendship is distinctive in lacking a telic point. Further instances of shared life that possess this characteristic temporal structure are described. It is argued that this notion of a mode of shared life cannot be recovered from various kinds of temporally extended agential structures that are the ingredients of Michael Bratman's work on shared agency. In so doing, I clarify the notion of a shared life and make a case for the fruitfulness of approaching questions about joint action from the perspective of work on the ontology of time occupation.
ISSN:0020-174X
1502-3923
DOI:10.1080/0020174X.2020.1731592