Is collective intentionality really primitive?

Elisabeth Pacherie

pp. 153-175

in: Michael Beaney, Carlo Penco, Massimiliano Vignolo (eds), Explaining the mental, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007

Abstract

This paper offers a critical discussion of Searle's account of collective intentionality. It argues Bratman's alternative account avoids some of the shortcomings of Searle's account, over-intellectualizes collective intentionality and imposes an excessive cognitive burden on participating agents.Tthe capacities needed to sustain collective intentionality are examined in an attempt to show that we can preserve the gist of Bratman's account in a cognitively more parsimonious way.