Joint Improvisation, Minimalism and Pluralism about Joint action

Authors

  • Pierre Saint-Germier Université Catholique de Louvain
  • Cédric Paternotte Sorbonne Université
  • Clément Canonne IRCAM, Analyses des Pratiques Musicales

Keywords:

joint action, improvisation, minimalism, plans, shared intentions

Abstract

This paper introduces freely improvised joint actions, a class of joint actions characterized by (i) highly unspecific goals and (ii) the unavailability of shared plans. For example, walking together just for the sake of walking together with no specific destination or path in mind provides an ordinary example of FIJAs, along with examples in the arts, e.g., collective free improvisation in music, improv theater, or contact improvisation in dance. We argue that classic philosophical accounts of joint action such as Bratman’s rule them out because the latter require a capacity for planning that is idle in the case of FIJAs. This argument is structurally similar to arguments for minimalist accounts of joint action (e.g., based on joint actions performed by children before they develop a full-fledged theory of mind), and this invites a parallel minimalist account, which we provide in terms of a specific kind of shared intentions that do not require plan states. We further argue that the resulting minimalist account is different in kind from the sort of minimalism suggested by developmental considerations and conclude in favor of a pluralistic minimalism, according to which there are several ways for an account of joint action to be minimal.

References

Bailey, D. 1992. Improvisation. Its Nature and Practice in Music. Boston: Da Capo Press.

Bratman, M. E. 1992. “Shared Cooperative Activity.” The Philosophical Review 101: 327–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511625190.005

Bratman, M. E. 1993. “Shared Intention.” Ethics 104: 97–113. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511625190.006

Bratman, M. E. 2014. Shared Agency. A Planning Theory of Acting Together. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199897933.001.0001

Brown, L. B. 2000. “‘Feeling My Way’: Jazz Improvisation and its Vicissitudes. A Plea for Imperfection.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58 (2): 113–23.

Butterfill, S. 2012. “Joint Action and Development.” The Philosophical Quarterly 62 (246): 23–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9213.2011.00005.x

Butterfill, S. 2016. “Joint Action: A Minimalist Approach.” In Routledge Handbook on the Social Mind, edited by J. Kiverstein. New York, London: Routledge.

Canonne, C., and A. Jean-Julien. 2016. “Play Together, Think Alike.” Psychology of Music 44 (3): 544–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735615577406

Canonne, C. 2018. “Rehearsing Free Improvisation? An Ethnographic Study of Free Improvisers at Work.” Music Theory Online 24 (4), https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.24.4.1.

Corbett, J. 2016. A Listeners Guide to Free Improvisation. Chicago: Chicago University Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226347462.001.0001

De Spain, K. 2014. Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Denzler, B., and J.-L. Guionnet. 2020. The Practice of Musical Improvisation. London, New York: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501349799

Fiebich, A. 2020. Minimal Cooperation and Shared Agency. Berlin: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29783-1

Gilbert, M. 1989. On Social Facts. London, New York: Routledge.

Gilbert, M. 2014. Joint Commitment. How We Make the Social World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970148.001.0001

Goupil, L., T. Wolf, P. Saint-Germier, J. J. Aucouturier, and C. Canonne. 2021. “Emergent Shared Intentions Support Coordination during Collective Musical Improvisation.” Cognitive Science 45 (1): e12932, https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12932.

Helm, B. W. 2008. “Plural Agents.” Noûs 42 (1): 17–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2007.00672.x

Heinonen, M. 2016. “Minimalism and Maximalism in the Study of Shared Intentional Action.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46 (2): 168–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393115614533

Keller, P. E. 2008. “Joint Action in Musical Performance.” In Enacting Intersubjectivity: A Cognitive and Social Perspective on the Study of Interactions, edited by F. Morganti, A. Carassa, and G. Riva, 205–21. Amsterdam: IOS Press.

Leep, J. 2008. Theatrical Improvisation. Short Form, Long Form, and Sketch-Based Improv. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612556

Linson, A., and E. F. Clarke. 2017. “Distributed Cognition, Ecological Theory, and Group Improvisation.” In Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music, edited by E. F. Clarke, and M. Doffman, 52–69. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199355914.003.0004

Miller, S. 2001. Social Action: A Teleological Account. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612954

Pacherie, É. 2003. “La dynamique des intentions.” Dialogue 42 (3): 447–80. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0012217300004753

Paternotte, C. 2020. “Joint Action: Why So Minimal?” In Minimal Cooperation and Shared Agency, edited by A. Fiebich, 41–58. Berlin: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29783-1_3

Preston, B. 2012. A Philosophy of Material Culture. London, New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203069844

Pressing, J. 1984. “Cognitive Processes in Improvisation.” In Cognitive Processes in the Perception of Art, edited by W. Ray Crozier, and A. Chapman, 345–63. Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4115(08)62358-4

Saint-Germier, P., and C. Canonne. 2020. “Coordinating Free Improvisation: An Integrative Framework for the Study of Collective Improvisation.” Musicae Scientiae, https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864920976182 online first.

Schönherr, J. 2019. “Lucky Joint Action.” Philosophical Psychology 32 (1): 123–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2018.1520207

Schuiling, F. 2018. The Instant Composers Pool and Improvisation beyond Jazz. London, New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351254380

Searle, J. 1990. “Collective Intentions and Actions.” In Intentions in Communication, edited by P. R. Cohen, J. Morgan, and M. E. Pollack, 401–16. Cambridge: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606366.007

Searle, J. 1995. The Construction of Social Reality. New York: The Free Press.

Tuomela, R. 2005. “We Intentions Revisited.” Philosophical Studies 125: 327–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-005-7781-1

Tuomela, R., and K. Miller. 1988. “We-intentions.” Philosophical Studies 53: 367–89. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110618204-003

Downloads

Published

2022-03-03

How to Cite

Saint-Germier, Pierre, Cédric Paternotte, and Clément Canonne. 2022. “Joint Improvisation, Minimalism and Pluralism about Joint Action”. Journal of Social Ontology 7 (1). Vienna, Austria:97-118. https://journalofsocialontology.org/index.php/jso/article/view/6733.

Issue

Section

Articles