The Ethics of Intending Together

In this dissertation, I explore how we are responsible for activities that we and others intend. My focus is two-fold. First, in Chapter One, I develop a new view of shared intending called The Network View. I posit that we should look at interactions between individuals’ intentions to model how agents are involved in and responsible for shared and individual activity. Next, I apply the results to problems in armed conflict. In Chapter Two, I conceptualize how sexualized violence can be genocidal. Using my Network View, I argue that a broader group of agents should be understood as acting with genocidal intent than has previously been recognized. After properly identifying these agents as individuals that act with genocidal intent, I argue that genocidal rape is rape that both has genocidal effect and is carried out by an agent with genocidal intent. In my last chapter, Chapter Three, I turn to consider a debate in Just War Theory. I argue that to make progress in determining which individuals are permissible targets for harm in war, we ought to discuss how agents are involved in the way a group intends this activity. To do this, I again use my Network View to propose a new account of collectivized liability.