Visiting Speaker: Frederica Berdini, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Abstract: This paper relates cases of socially displaced and distorted agency —i.e., agency exercised in conditions of oppression— to Christine Korsgaard’s constitutivist Authorship view of agency. In light of a potential problem that these cases pose to Korsgaard’s view, I suggest a way to amend it in an interactionist and socially situated key. I do so by incorporating G.E.M. Anscombe’s characterization of intentional action and elements from the speech act theoretical account of linguistic communication.

The talk will be followed by lunch at the University Club. Please contact Omid Payrow Shabani if you would like to attend the lunch.