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The Division of Deontic Labour

Truth, Image, NormativityCagliari, October 23, 2014

Barry Smith

the philosophy of the dinner party

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Searle, Tuomela, Gilbert, Bratman deal with simple local interaction of cooperative agents communicating by speech

“Would you like to dance?”“Let’s lift this table”“Waiter, bring me a beer!”“Shall we cook dinner together?”…

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beyond the philosophy of the dinner party

Phase 1: Massively shared agency involving participants who share a common goal – example: a symphony performance

Phase 2: Massively shared agency involving substantial numbers of participants who are alienated from the overarching goal – example: an industrial enterprise, an army, the law, a city planning authority

first main thesis:the meshing of complex actions of large numbers of people is made possible through

1. modularization 2. hierarchically organized authorities

both resting essentially on 3. the meshing of (typically diagrammatic) documents

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Orchestal score with staves

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The Modularity of the Orchestral Score

The actions of the players in an orchestral performance

• are intermeshed through the sets of intermeshed documents we call orchestral scores

These documents are plan specifications (sets of instructions for playing instruments)The conductor provides the authority

– to initiate commitment, thus to create a plan from a mere plan specification

– to resolve disputes which arise along the way, for example as to interpretation, tempo, …

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Scores bring it about that specific obligation series are distributed in coordinated fashion across large groups

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players actions are coordinated and steered through time through conductor’s actions combined with intermeshed sets of instructions

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Massive shared agency presupposes modularity

Modularity of Orchestral Score

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reflects modularity of orchestra

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Authorities involved in maintaining the division of orchestral deontic labor that is involved in a symphony concert:

ConductorOrchestral section leaders (First violin …)Rehearsal (drill) managerOrchestra managerConcert hall manager~ Composer

– exerts authority only as mediated through the score

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Documents involved in maintaining the division of orchestral deontic labor

scores, sub-scorescontracts

orchestra manager and conductor orchestra manager and playersconcert hall manager and orchestra managerconcert hall manager and audience members (tickets)

laws, includingcopyright lawlaws governing public assemblylaws governing employment contractslaws governing sale of tickets

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between

documents hold together the executions of horizontally and vertically meshed subplans

through drilldrill, too, is modularized

based on individual and small group practice all the way up to full orchestra rehearsal

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How to do things with scores1. the author authors the score, thereby creates a possibility

of performance, and thereby creates the work2. conductor and orchestra use the score as the specification

of a plan (with subplans) and commit themselves to its execution,

3. the orchestra members committing themselves to accept the authority of the conductor

4. they use the score in to rehearsing the execution of their plan (develop score-coordinated expertise through drill)

5. they schedule a concert, thereby making a commitment to each other, to their employer, and to a prospective audience to perform that work

6. they perform the work17

Scott J. Shapiro, “Massively Shared Agency”, 2013

[Bratman, Searle …] ‘are unable to account for the existence of massively shared agency.

they ‘have largely concentrated on analyzing shared activities among highly committed participants. The working assumption has been that those who sing duets or paint houses together are all committed to the success of the activity.’

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Shapiro: To adapt standard theory of collective agency to deal with massively shared actions we

need to add authority

Authorities are … “mesh creating” mechanisms. When disputes between participants break out with respect to the proper way to proceed, authorities can create a mesh between the subplans of the participants by demanding that both sides accept a certain solution.

Basis for Shapiro’s theory of the nature of law

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Legal systems are (roughly) • systems of intermeshed obligations

• systems of intermeshed plans

• systems of intermeshed instructions

• system of intermeshed authorities

which allow

• conception of ever more complex intermeshed plans through reliance on shared commitments and on development of intermeshed expertise

• excution of these plans through shared agency

• investment in human and physical capital20

Searle: Directions of fit• world-to-mind: a plan is formulated to

change the world (to make it conform to the mind of the planner …)

• mind-to-world: an assertion is about something in the world

• automatic mind-to-world-and-world-to-mind: I say “I promise to pay you $100 dollars” and thereby make it true that I promise to pay you $100 dollars

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directions of fit for documents

• world-to-mind: a plan is formulated to change the world (to make it conform to the mind of the planner …)

• mind-to-world: a report is published evaluating the success of the execution of the plan

• automatic mind-to-world-and-world-to-mind: Act of Parliament is published declaring that such-and-such is the law and such-and-such is the law

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what begins as a plan, ends as a record

cartographic directions of fit

Blueprint

what begins as a plan

ends as a record • of process• of product

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Blueprint

what begins as a plan

ends as a record • of process• of product

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Blueprint associated with multiple series of documents with deontic powers

chain of commitments from order to blueprint creation to acceptance of

blueprint to process of building

in accordance with blueprint

to acceptance of finished building 26

Plans will be modified along the way

physical changes to the building to meet building codes

changes in materials/suppliers

changes in allowed physical processes

changes in administrative (approval) processes

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Documents with different directions of fit become intermeshed through being

stapled together over time

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second main thesis:there is a division of deontic labor effectuated through the medium of

intermeshed documents, which allow the deontic effects of episodic acts to be

extended through time

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• testaments allow the will of the testatrix to be made effective even after her death

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• mortgage notes attached to title deeds allow the value of your home to be used twice: as shelter and shelter and simultaneously as collateral on a loan

documents attached to building plans create

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• certification from planning authorities as to conformity to building codes of work performed

• insurance against loss as a result of or in the course of building work being performed

• warranty on behalf of architects and builders concerning quality of work performed

• warranty on behalf of suppliers concerning quality of materials• security to architects, builders and suppliers that they will be

paid in pre-specific instalments• all of these in turn create surety in the eyes of

utilities companies when connecting the building to electricity, gas and water supplies

providers of insurance protection for the building when once complete

• potential purchasers thus adding to the monetary value of the building itself

conclusionthe meshing of plans, authorities and groups of agents of the sort that is provided by documents and document acts is an indispensable pre-requisite of all that is valuable in modern civilization

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Role of plan + authority in the industrial enterprise

the cooperation of the wage-laborers … their unification into one single productive body, and the establishment of a connection between their individual functions, ... are not their own act, but the act of the capital that brings them together and maintains them in that situation. … the interconnection between their various labors confronts them in the realm of ideas as a plan drawn up by the capitalist, and in practice as his authority, as the powerful will of a being outside them, who subjects their activity to his purpose. Das Kapital (quoted by Shapiro)

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Deontic drill

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scores and subscores / plans and subplansalso allow training (rehearsal = pretend realization of a plan in advance of actual

realization)

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it takes practice also to understand how to interpret and follow the instructions of the conductor

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we need training (drill) in order to learn how to execute diagrams

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How to do things with documents

• An orchestral work (as something that can be rehearsed, performed and re-performed) – could not exist without a score– could not be rehearsed without scores and

subscores– could not be performed without (either)

scores or rehearsal

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We need training in order to execute traffic signs

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We need training in order to execute the rules of civil procedure

http://www.kibagames.com/Game/Lawyer_Dress_Up

http://www.kibagames.com/Game/Lawyer_Dress_Up

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modularity of command and control in the military alsoFire

Support

LogisticsAir Operatio

ns

Intelligence

Civil-Military

Operations

Targeting

Maneuver &

Blue Force

Tracking

US military operations center in Afghanistan