How is the Handbook Organized?

The handbook is divided into four parts. Each part begins with a short introduction that provides an overview of issues and debates within that area and a brief summary of its contents.

Part I of the handbook focuses on the metaphysical foundations of collective responsibility and theories of collective responsibility. Just as theories of individual moral responsibility begin with theories about individual action and agency, so too discussions of collective responsibility need to be informed by theories of joint action and shared or group agency. Those working within the field of collective intentionality have developed these theories over the past few decades. Within that field a central task is to explain the intentional structure of joint agency. Moral responsibility of individual human agents often rests on whether or not the individual intended to do X. So, too, shared responsibility and group responsibility is thought to rest, in part, on whether the individuals in the group intended the joint outcome or whether a group itself acted intentionally. One of the central issues uniting the contributions in this part of the handbook is whether collective agency and collective responsibility can be reduced to indi­vidual agency and responsibility or whether it requires for its analysis an anti-individualistic approach.

Part II of the handbook addresses a variety of theoretical issues within the domain of col­lective responsibility. One such issue asks: how can an individual bear responsibility for what the group, of which she is a part, does when that individual has limited to no control over the conduct of that group? Pinning responsibility for what the group does on any marginally con­tributing individual seems to violate a basic principle of ethics that says that an individual can only be morally responsible for events within her causal reach.

Another major issue concerns collective inaction or omission—the failure of a group to act.

Introduction

role in joint action and responsibility, collective obligation, and the possibility that groups are self-aware are all topics covered in this section.

Part III of the handbook focuses on collective responsibility in the context of politics, the sciences, law, and business ethics. The issue of collective responsibility shows up in myriad ways within each one of these several domains. Part IV of the volume focuses on specific applied issues in collective responsibility. Each topic in this part of the volume can be characterized under the heading of “collective responsibility for.”