Mopping the Floors or Putting a Man on the Moon? Self‐Narrative and the Scope of Individual Moral Responsibility for Collective Actions
2025-07-06
Much of what we do, we do together. This raises the question of what moral responsibility individuals have for collective actions. Recent discussions have largely ignored the psychology of participants in collective behavior. Some people act through their collective as if it were a tool; some see themselves as mere cogs in a machine; others see themselves as helping their collective achieve its ends. I argue that these perspectives affect an individual's moral responsibility for collective actions. These perspectives vary independently of the individual's level of power, causal impact, or hierarchical position in the collective. Instead, they reflect the self‐narratives people adopt as they engage in collective activity. Narratives play an important role in coordinating collective behavior; they also have a deep and pervasive impact on individuals' experiences and intentions. I build on these considerations to present a narrative‐based account of individual moral responsibility for collective actions.