197:(2018) is the first extended treatment of demand-rights, a class of rights that, she argues, are apt to be considered rights par excellence. To have a demand-right is to have the standing to demand an action of someone. That person is, correspondingly, obligated to the right-holder to perform the act in question. Seeking to answer the question "How are demand rights possible?" Gilbert argues for two main theses. First, joint commitment is a ground of demand-rights. Second, joint commitment may well be their only ground. In this connection Gilbert asks whether there are demand-rights whose existence can be demonstrated by moral argument without invoking a joint commitment, and finds wanting existing arguments to the effect that there are. She also argues against the possibility of accruing demand-rights through the existence of a given legal system or other institution without the involvement of a joint commitment. The final chapter of the book applies its findings to the topic of human rights.
149:, that "One is willing to be the member of a plural subject if one is willing, at least in relation to certain conditions, to put one's own will into a 'pool of wills' dedicated, as one, to a single goal (or whatever it is that the pool is dedicated to)" (p.18). If two or more people have openly expressed such willingness in relation to a particular goal, in conditions of common knowledge, then the pertinent pool of wills is set up. In other words, the people concerned constitute the plural subject of the goal. As an alternative to talking of a pool of wills Gilbert refers also to joint commitment as when she writes: "the wills of the parties are jointly committed" (p.198). In later work she has preferred the language of joint commitment. Gilbert compares the plural subject to the singular subject and argues, with allusion to
179:(2006; 2008) Gilbert offered a new perspective on a classical problem in political philosophy, generally known as 'the' problem of political obligation. As Gilbert makes clear in her book, there are many versions of this problem. She addresses the question whether there is something about one's being the member of a particular society that means one is obligated to uphold the political institutions of that society. Unlike most contemporary writers on the subject, she does not insist that the obligation in question is a matter of moral requirement. Gilbert argues that there are obligations of a different sort, and that these that are a function of membership in a political society construed as membership in a particular kind of plural subject constituted, as are all plural subjects, by a joint commitment.
22:(born 1942) is a British philosopher who contributed to the foundations of the analytic philosophy of social phenomena. She also made substantial contributions to the fields of political philosophy, the philosophy of law, and ethics. She is a Distinguished Professor and the Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy at the
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Other topics
Gilbert has addressed in one or more of her publications include agreements and promises, authority, collective emotions, collective responsibility, personal decisions and intentions, marital love, mutual recognition, patriotism, rights (in particular claim-rights), shared attention,
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Gilbert engages with the work of central figures in contemporary rights theory such as H. L. A. Hart, Joseph Raz and Judith
Thomson, and with prominent human rights theorists such as Charles Beitz and Alan Buchanan. She argues that promises and agreements - both commonly understood to ground
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demand-rights - are constituted by joint commitments, rejecting promise theorists' standard assumption that the obligations most closely associated with promises are a matter of moral requirement.
190:(2014) contains eighteen recent papers that together address most of the topics in the above list along with several others that Gilbert argues can be illuminated by an appeal to joint commitment.
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113:. In 2019 she was awarded the Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution by Phi Beta Kappa in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association.
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125:(1989) Gilbert presented novel accounts of a number of central social phenomena in the context of critical reflections on proposals by the founders of sociology
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Gilbert was born in the United
Kingdom, the second and youngest child of Peter Gilbert, a north London jeweler, and his wife Miriam. The original family name
153:, that "In order for individual human beings to form collectivities, they must take on a special character, a 'new' character, insofar as they need not,
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In subsequent writings
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human beings, have that character. Moreover, humans must form a whole or unit of a special kind...a plural subject" (p.431).
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101:, and regularly gives invited lectures in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. Gilbert was married to philosopher
141:. The phenomena discussed include social conventions, social groups in a central sense of the term, group languages,
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Gilbert's work has influenced a number of theorists outside philosophy including that of developmental psychologist
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A Theory of
Political Obligation: Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society
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She obtained a "double first" B.A. degree in
Classics and Philosophy from
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172:(in French) (2003) is composed of relevant papers authored by Gilbert.
490:(Summer 2019 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University
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Marcher ensemble: Essais sur les fondements des phénomènes collectifs
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469:"2019 Lebowitz Prize Awarded to Philosophers Bratman and Gilbert"
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Swedish
Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences
423:"Faculty profile at the University of California, Irvine"
247:, Presses universitaires de France: Paris, France, (2003)
509:"See sections 2.3, 4.1, and 5 of 'Political Obligation'"
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Living
Together: Rationality, Sociality, and Obligation
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http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5365
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Focusing on Rights: An
Interview with Margaret Gilbert
229:, London, New York: Routledge, (1989, Reprinted 1992)
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Il Noi Collettivo: Impegno Congiunto e Mondo Sociale
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and a B.Phil. and D.Phil. degree in Philosophy from
42:. All four of her grandparents had been born in the
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109:. In 2016, Margaret Gilbert was elected to the
372:"Interview with Martin GilbertYuli Kosharovsky"
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183:shared values, social rules, and social unity.
257:Joint Commitment: How We Make the Social World
253:, Oxford University Press: Oxford (2006)(2008)
241:, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD. (2000)
235:, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD. (1996)
259:, Oxford University Press: New York (2014).
105:and is the sister of British historian Sir
397:"Margaret Gilbert Professor of Philosophy"
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348:"Sir Martin Gilbert, historian – obituary"
269:Rights and Demands: A Foundational Inquiry
61:. From 1983 until 2006, she taught at the
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111:American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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623:20th-century British women writers
593:Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford
573:Academics of King's College London
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265:, Raffaelo Cortina: Milano (2015).
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356:. 4 February 2015. Archived from
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63:University of Connecticut, Storrs
177:A Theory of Political Obligation
67:University of California, Irvine
24:University of California, Irvine
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50:(modern Poland and Lithuania).
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282:Collective intentionality
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618:Women political writers
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306:Retrieved 27 April 2018
87:Wolfson College, Oxford
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578:Analytic philosophers
360:on 18 September 2017.
216:Selected publications
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628:Women legal scholars
71:Princeton University
55:Cambridge University
603:Philosophers of law
353:The Daily Telegraph
448:members.amacad.org
326:The Globe and Mail
202:Rights and Demands
195:Rights and Demands
83:Indiana University
44:Pale of Settlement
38:was Anglicised to
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168:(2000) and
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381:23 October
288:References
97:, and the
332:11 August
135:Max Weber
514:27 April
428:27 April
276:See also
164:(1996),
151:Durkheim
147:Rousseau
36:Goldberg
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221:Books
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30:Life
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