Gerd Wagner wrote:
>>>> One big question in sociological theory is, are there non-tangible
>>>> social structures that operate like this example? Is social structure
>>>> as autonomous from the individuals who occupy it, as a building is?
>>>>
>>> What about social commitments? They arise from communication acts (such
>>> as a purchase order) on the basis of social norms and they exist
>>> independently of the fact if the agents involved in the communication
>>> are aware of them (i.e. have a corresponding belief) or not.
>>>
>>
>> I can see how a purchase order can be said to exist independently of
>> agents' beliefs.
>>
>> But how can a social commitment related to that artifact be said to
>> exist
>> independently of agents' beliefs?
>>
>
> Even if the agent that places the order and the one that takes the order
> do not create a belief in the corresponding commitment (to pay the
> invoice after receiving the ordered item), say, because of a temporary
> mental blackout, another agent that observed the communication can know
> and explain to them that this commitment exists based on the social
> norms of their language community.
Isn't the social commitment then dependent on the third agent's beliefs?
I guess I'd want to frame the question in terms of whether or not a social
commitment continues to exist if both the purchaser and the supplier
forget about the order before it can be fulfilled, and no other agent is
aware of it.
I'd also want to consider situations where there is an independent
artifact which memorializes the order as well as situations where there is
none.
In Anglo-American law, for instance, there's something called the statute
of frauds which pretty much insists that such an order be in writing, or
else no social commitment (or legal contract, if you will) can be said to
exist. There's a ton of case law that deals with ways around the statute
of frauds, though, so the semantics of this is anything but
straightforward.
> This is is part of the semantics of communication, as argued by Searle,
> e.g. in his book "The Construction of Social Reality".
Yes, I'm a semiotician. Or used to be. :)
-- Mark
Mark P. Line
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