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How Much Can We Ask of Collective Agents?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2020

Stephanie Collins*
Affiliation:
Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Are obligations of collective agents—such as states, businesses, and non-profits—ever overdemanding? I argue they are not. I consider two seemingly attractive routes to collective overdemandingness: that an obligation is overdemanding on a collective just if the performance would be overdemanding for members; and that an obligation is overdemanding on a collective just if the performance would frustrate the collective’s permissible deep preferences. I reject these. Instead, collective overdemandingness complaints should be reinterpreted as complaints about inability or third-party costs. These are not the same as overdemandingness. Accordingly, we can ask an awful lot of collective agents.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

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