multisoggetti

Multisoggetti is a term used in Italian-language philosophical and theoretical literature to refer to entities that embody multiple subjective positions within a single object or system. The term combines multi- meaning many and soggetto meaning subject, and it is used to analyze how agency can be distributed across components or perspectives. In contrast to traditional subject-object dichotomies, multisoggetti acknowledge that an artifact, organism, or social structure can function as an agent from several standpoints or can be acted upon by several agents with legitimate causal powers.

In philosophy of mind and ontology, multisoggetti describe entities with distributed or collective agency: for example, a smart device network that enacts goals through its subsystems, each with autonomy. In social theory, organizations or communities can be viewed as multisoggetti when internal actors, roles, and interests give rise to overlapping intentional stances toward a shared task. In linguistics or cognitive science, the concept can help model objects that participate in multiple relational frames or interpretations.

Critically, the term is not universally standardized in English-language sources, and its exact scope varies by author. Proponents emphasize analytic clarity about who or what holds agency in complex systems, while critics warn that without precise criteria multisoggetti risk vagueness or improvised explanations. See also: agency, distributed cognition, collective intentionality, multi-agent systems, social ontology.