Normativity in joint action

Abstract

Correspondence Javier Gomez-Lavin, Department of Philosophy, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104. Email: [email protected] The debate regarding the nature of joint action has come to a stalemate due to a dependence on intuitional methods. Normativists, such as Margaret Gilbert, argue that actionrelative normative relations are inherent in joint action, while non-normativists, such as Michael Bratman, claim that there are minimal cases of joint action without normative relations. In this work, we describe the first experimental examinations of these intuitions, and report the results of six studies that weigh in favor of the normativist paradigm. Philosophical ramifications and further extensions of this work are then discussed.