Corporate Agency - The Lesson of the Discursive Dilemma

Abstract

There are different types of combined agency, as there are different theories that seek to make sense of any individual type. Th is paper begins with a distinction between aggregate agency, shared agency, and corporate agency. Treating aggregate agency as a residual category, not a genuinely interesting form of collective action, it draws attention to a recognized way of explaining shared agency that can claim to make the phenomenon intelligible without reducing its fascination: ‘to improve intelligibility’, in Donald Davidson’s (1984: 183) phrase, ‘while retaining the excitement’. And then it explores the question of whether that desideratum can be satisfied in the case of corporate agency. Th e thesis is that this is possible and that the discursive dilemma represents an important step in understanding why. Show more