We-mode and Acting Qua Group Member
As already mentioned, in our account of group responsibility we avail ourselves of the closely related notions of we-mode and acting qua group member.
For the purposes of the present chapter it suffices to say that the group members act in the we-mode only if they act as group members and are collectively committed to the group action in question.
In the more general case we can speak of the group’s constitutive goals, norms, and standards instead of group action. Those constitutive goals etc. can be called the “ethos” of the group.Given this it remains to be said what acting qua group member amounts to. For our present purposes we can say the following. We assume that the group in consideration is concerned with certain specific topics in its activities. Let us speak of the group’s realm of concern. Obviously the topics its ethos is about must at least belong to this realm, if not exhaust it.
Considering the general case of a structured group, we can classify the types of actions within the group’s realm of concern as follows: (1) positional actions related to a group position, which include (i) actions (tasks) that the position holder in question ought to perform in certain circumstances and (ii) actions that he may perform in some circumstances; (2) actions which the ethos of the group requires or allows; (3) actions which are based on agreement making which have not been codified by the group but which still are consistent with actions in (1) and (2);
(4) freely chosen activities which include actions and activities not within classes (1)-(3) but which, although not incompatible with them, still are actions within the realm of concern of g and rationally (understood broadly to amount to reasonably) collectively accepted by, or acceptable to, the members of g as such actions.
Basically, acting as a group member is to intentionally act within the group’s realm of concern.
It can be either successful action or an unsuccessful action. What is required is that the group member in question will intentionally attempt to act in a way related to what he takes to be the group’s realm of concern such that he does not violate what he takes to be the group’s ethos. Thus full success will not be required. There may thus be failures due to false beliefs about the group’s norms and standards, due to lack of skill, or due to environmental obstacles. Thus acting as a group member in the positional case, viz. in a structured group, is equivalent to acting intentionally in one of the senses (1)-(4) or attempting so to act. Below this notion will be meant when we speak of acting or functioning qua group member. Note especially that one can act within the realm of the group’s concern but intentionally fail to obey the norms and standards of the group. Then the group may not be responsible for this group member’s action, except perhaps when it has promised - or has otherwise obligated itself - to see to it that its members do not violate its ethos.Considering the group’s E, which here means the ethos of the group, roughly its basic constitutive goals, beliefs, practices, and other similar features, we assume that the group members have collectively accepted it and are collectively committed to it. We can say that E is internal to the group as it depends on the group members’ collective acceptance and commitment. Note that E can be in contradiction with the normative standard, N, in light of which the praiseworthiness or blameworthiness of the group’s action is to be judged. N is assumed to be external to the group in the sense that it is not, at least not solely, dependent on the collective acceptance and commitment of the members of the group, the action of which is to be appraised. N offers an external yardstick against which the group’s action is measured. We may say that E should, and of course could, be compatible with N but is not necessarily so (e.g. criminal groups can be proper groups).
Actions in (1) are of course typical positional actions that accordingly qualify as acting qua member of g in one’s position. Subclass (ii) of (1) thus consists of actions that the holder of a position may choose from. However, classes (2)-(4) also can occur at least in the positional case. Note that in the case of unstructured groups, class (1) is empty.
5.4