ABSTRACT
The joint commitment account of collective belief refers to believing p "as a body." According to Mathiesen, on the joint commitment account of collective belief, 'group views will likely not be held in an epistemically rational way'. In considering whether groups believe or merely accept propositions, we must set aside several senses of "acceptance" that are not pertinent to rejectionism. Raimo Tuomela employs a similar notion of collective acceptance to characterize social notions like that of a social institution. Some writers have investigated the relation of group beliefs to communication within a group and to communication between a group and those outside the group. There are sources and mechanisms of belief universally present in individuals that explain why the individuals invariably have these beliefs. But there are no sources or mechanisms of belief universally present in groups that invariably produce such beliefs in groups.
