Commitment and Self-Evaluation: Individual and Collective

The project addresses a ubiquitous but relatively neglected phenomenon in human life: commitment. An account of commitment is developed that explains its characteristic role in our lives in terms of critical attitudes that we take towards ourselves – “self-evaluative” attitudes. This new theory has significant pay-offs for several key questions in philosophy and the social sciences. In philosophy of action, it serves as the basis for a new theory of intentional action that shifts the focus from deliberative to executive thought, from weighing reasons to translating decisions into action. In social ontology, it offers a novel way to conceptualize interpersonal recognition, group membership and corporate agency.