Introduction

Abstract

AbstractThe Introduction to Life in Groups explains the central focus of the book: a range of everyday concepts relating to our collective psychology, such as those expressed when people talk about what they, collectively, think, feel, intend, and so on. It introduces the core of the author’s accounts of such concepts—joint commitment—and reviews some central aspects of joint commitments, their genesis and functioning, including the distinction between basic and non-basic cases, the possibility of their obtaining among people who do not know each other personally, and their grounding rights of the parties to each other’s conforming action. The author’s understanding of a group for the purposes of this book is clarified, as are other aspects of her approach to the topics in question, including her use of the phrase “plural subject” for any set of jointly committed persons. The opening discussion is followed by a preview of the sections and chapters of the book.