Group well-being and the consciousness requirement

Journal article

We often talk as if things can benefit or harm groups, such as states and corporations. But do groups have well-being? Despite its potential importance to many areas of practical philosophy, this question has received surprisingly little attention in the literature. I will try to make progress on this underexplored question by offering a defense of group well-being. After setting out the wide significance of this topic, I defend the idea against the objection from the consciousness requirement. It is widely accepted that the capacity for phenomenal consciousness is necessary for having well-being. In response, I argue that we should not accept the consciousness requirement as it is currently formulated, because the requirement is undermotivated and faces a counterexample. I then propose that we should weaken the consciousness requirement that allows groups to have well-being while maintaining the appealing idea that there is some intimate connection between well-being and consciousness.

Authors: Takahashi, R

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: The Philosophical Quarterly
• Article number: pqag015
• Publication date: 2026-02-27
• DOI: 10.1093/pq/pqag015
• EISSN: 1467-9213
• ISSN: 0031-8094
• Language: English
• Keywords: group agency; consciousness; group well-being; and perdurantism; well-being; group intentionality