Enactivist social ontology

Summary

Some social institutions might qualify as minimal agents, but not the full-blown intentional agents that humans are. Enactivist accounts of minimal agency, which normally apply to living organisms, can be extended to institutions. Two enactivist models are considered: a forward-looking Jonasian model oriented toward self-persistence, and a backward-looking retentive model responsive to precedent. Through a critique of structural functionalism, the paper argues that the retentive model better explains institutional agency. This conclusion is independently supported by philosophers such as Christian List, Philip Pettit, and Ronald Dworkin, who also characterize institutional agency as retentive.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper is an investigation into the possibility of institutional agency and proceeds via the elaboration of two, nested claims. First, if genuine agency is attributable to certain social institutions, it would not be the full-blown, intentional agency that characterizes human activity, but would rather fall under a minimal modality of agency. Moreover, since enactivists aim to articulate minimal conceptions of agency that are applicable across the sphere of the living, this suggests that such accounts of minimal agency might additionally be brought to bear onto some institutions. The second claim concerns which of two ideally typical enactivist accounts of minimal agency can more promisingly be applied to our institutions. Where some enactivists endorse a Jonasian account of minimal agency, which stresses a protentive, forward-looking orientation to a self-persistence goal, other enactivists apply a retentive ideal type of minimal agency, the norms of which are founded on a backward-looking responsiveness to precedent. By way of a critical analysis of structural functionalism, I argue that the retentive approach better explains the kind of agency that would be expressed by some institutions. I also claim that some philosophers, including Christian List, Philip Pettit and Ronald Dworkin, have independently come to the conclusion that institutional agency is retentive agency.