joint action
What did you do today? It is likely that some of your answers to this question refer to things you
did individually and others to things you did jointly with others. In commonsense thinking about
action and intention, the notion that many of the things that matter most in our lives are things
we do with others seems unproblematic.
But theoretically things are rather different.
In developmental, cognitive and philosophical research there is a long tradition of focusing
exclusively on actions with just one agent.
There is no theoretical justification for the focus on just one individual acting
alone---it simply makes things easier.
But to restrict attention to actions with just one agent is to exclude
many of the things that matter most.
We humans are, after all, one of those species that nurture babies cooperatively.
It’s not just that we care to do things with others:
capacities for joint action are critical for our species’ survival.
We need, therefore, to shift focus from one individual acting along to cases in which
two or more individuals act together.
That is, we need to shift from individual to joint action---such as moving a log together, sharing
a smile, or ...
... cycling to school together.
The examples are deceptively simple.
Philosophically, shifting from individual to joint action turns out to be surprisingly tricky.
Our aim in this section of the course is to understand some of the puzzles we face in trying to understand,
at a very basic level, what is involved in joint action. And maybe we will even solve some of them.