In this wide-ranging collection of essays, distinguished philosopher Margaret Gilbert investigates the structure of our social world. People often speak of what we do, think, and feel, and of our values, conventions, and laws. Asking what we mean by such talk, Gilbert invokes the foundational idea of joint commitment. She applies this idea to topics ranging from the mutual recognition of two people to the unity of the European Union, from marital love to patriotism, from promissory obligation to the rights of those who issue authoritative commands. Written clearly and without undue technicality, this richly textured collection of essays makes a powerful argument for the importance of joint commitment in our personal and public lives.

About the Author
Margaret Gilbert is Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. A founding figure in contemporary philosophy of social phenomena, her work has applications within moral, political and legal philosophy and social and political science. Her many books include On Social Facts (1989), Sociality and Responsibility (2000), and A Theory of Political Obligation (2006). She has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and held other distinguished research and teaching positions in the United States, Europe, and Scandinavia.

Reviews
As Gilbert sees it, joint commitments are centrally constitutive of collective actions and attitudes, the practice of promising, conventions, political obligations and so on as per the above set of chapter headings. As the sub-title suggests, joint commitment is evidently by her lights the most fundamental social concept. As is fitting, she applies it in a wide variety of contexts, and the result is a wide-ranging and lively set of essays. Importantly, she applies her theoretical notion to questions in political philosophy and thereby connects abstract theory to real world concerns, something most theorists in this sub-field have not yet done. While many of the essays are well-known to those working in the field, it is useful to have them collected in one place, not the least because it facilitates development of an overview of her oeuvre. * Seumas Miller, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
a valuable resource to scholars in a variety of disciplines, as well as ordinary people, who have an interest in the everyday phenomena that Gilbert discusses with much insight and illumination...an enjoyable read and can be recommended to a broad-ranging audience. * Matti Heinonen, Journal of Social Ontology *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190251956
Author Margaret Gilbert
Format Paperback
Page Count 466
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 658g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 231mm * 33mm