Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T12:46:01.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Epistemic Features of Group Belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Abstract

Recently, there has been a debate focusing on the question of whether groups can literally have beliefs. For the purposes of epistemology, however, the key question is whether groups can have knowledge. More specifically, the question is whether “group views” can have the key epistemic features of belief, viz., aiming at truth and being epistemically rational. I argue that, while groups may not have beliefs in the full sense of the word, group views can have these key epistemic features of belief. However, I argue that on Margaret Gilbert's influential “plural subject” account of group belief, group views are unlikely to be epistemically rational.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BonJour, Laurence. 1985. The Structure of Empirical Knowledge. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 1993. “Practical Reasoning and Acceptance in a Context.” Mind 102: 115.Google Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 1999. “Shared Intention and Mutual Obligation.” Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 130–41.Google Scholar
Clifford, W. K. 1879/2001. “The Ethics of Belief.” In The Ethics of Belief, Burger, A. J., ed. http://ajburger.homestead.com/files/book.htm#ethics (accessed May 15, 2006).Google Scholar
Cohen, L. Jonathan. 1989. “Belief and Acceptance.” Mind 98: 367–89.Google Scholar
Corlett, J. Angelo. 1996. Analyzing Social Knowledge. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 1994. “Social Facts,” in Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, Martin, Michael and McIntyre, Lee C., eds. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, pp. 433–40.Google Scholar
Engel, Pascal. 1998. “Believing, Accepting, Holding True.” Philosophical Explorations 1: 140151.Google Scholar
Fallis, Don. 2005. “Epistemic Value Theory and Judgment Aggregation.” Episteme 2(1): 3955.Google Scholar
Foley, Richard. 1993. Working Without at Net: A Study of Egocentric Epistemology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Giersson, Heimat. 2004. “Contra Collective Epistemic Agency.” Southwest Philosophy Review 20: 163166.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 1987/1996. “Modeling Collective Belief.” In Living Together: Rationality, Sociality, and Obligation. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 195214.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 1989. On Social Facts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 1994. “Remarks on Collective Belief.” In Socializing Epistemology: The Social Dimension of Knowledge, Schmitt, Frederick F., ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 235255.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 1996. “More on Collective Belief.” Living Together: Rationality, Sociality, and Obligation. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 339–60.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 2000. “Collective Belief and Scientific Change.” In Sociality and Responsibility: New Essays in Plural Subject Theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 2002. “Belief and Acceptance as Features of Groups.” Protosociology 16: 3569.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. 2004. “Collective Epistemology.” Episteme 1(2): 95107.Google Scholar
Goldman, Alvin. 1999. Knowledge in a Social World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DeRose, Keith. 1999. “Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense.” In The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology, Greco, John and Sosa, Ernest, eds. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hakli, Raul. 2006. “Group beliefs and the distinction between belief and acceptance.” Cognitive Systems Research 7(2–3): 286297Google Scholar
Kawall, Jason. 2000. “Other-Regarding Epistemic Virtues.” Ratio 15(3): 257275.Google Scholar
Lehrer, Keith. 1990. Theory of Knowledge. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
McMahon, Christopher. 2003. “Two Modes of Collective Belief.” Protosociology 18/19: 347362.Google Scholar
Meijers, Anthonie. 2002. “Collective Agents and Cognitive Attitudes.” Protosociology 16: 7085.Google Scholar
Meijers, Anthonie.. 2003. “Why Accept Collective Beliefs? Reply to Gilbert.” Protosociology 18/19: 377–88.Google Scholar
Mathiesen, Kay. 2003. “On Collective Identity.” Protosociology 18/19: 6685.Google Scholar
Mathiesen, Kay.. 2005. “Collective Consciousness.” In Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind, Thomasson, Amie and Smith, David Woodruff, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Seumas. 2001. Social Action: A Teleological Account. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 2003. “Groups With Minds of Their Own.” In Socializing Metaphysics: The Nature of Social Reality, Schmitt, Frederick F., ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 167193.Google Scholar
Preyer, Gerhard. 2003. “What is Wrong With Rejectionists?” In Interpretation, Sprache und das Soziale: Philosophische Artikel (Interpretaion, Language and the Social: Philosophical Articles). Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
Quinton, Anthony. 1975. “Social Objects.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 75: 127.Google Scholar
Schanck, R. L. 1932. “A Study of a Community and Its Groups and Institutions Conceived As Behaviors of Individuals.” Psychological Monographs 43.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Frederick. 1994. “The Justification of Group Beliefs.” In Socializing Epistemology: The Social Dimensions of Knowledge, Schmitt, Frederick F., ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 257–88.Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1995. The Construction of Social Reality. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Steup, Matthias, ed. 2001. Knowledge, Truth, and Duty. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tollefsen, Deborah. 2002a. “Challenging Epistemic Individualism.” Protosociology 16: 86117.Google Scholar
Tollefsen, Deborah. 2002b. “Organizations as True Believers.” Journal of Social Philosophy 23: 395410.Google Scholar
Tollefsen, Deborah. 2003. “Rejecting Rejectionism.” Protosociology 18/19: 389405.Google Scholar
Tuomela, Raimo. 1995. The Importance of Us: A Philosophical Study of Basic Social Notions. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tuomela, Raimo. 1992. “Group Beliefs.” Synthese 91: 285318.Google Scholar
Tuomela, Raimo. 2000. “Belief versus Acceptance.” Philosophical Explorations 2: 122137.Google Scholar
Tuomela, Raimo. 2004. “Group Knowledge Analyzed.” Episteme 1(2): 109127.Google Scholar
Velleman, J. David. 2000. “On the Aim of Belief.” In The Possibility of Practical Reason. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 244281.Google Scholar
Wedgwood, Ralph. 2002. “The Aim of Belief.” Philosophical Perspectives 16: 267297.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1973. “Deciding to Believe.” In Problems of the Self: Philosophical Papers 1956-1972. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 135151.Google Scholar
Wray, K. Brad. 2001. “Collective Belief and Acceptance.” Synthese 129: 319333.Google Scholar
Wray, K. Brad. 2003. “What Really Divides Gilbert and the Rejectionists?Protosociology 18/19: 363376.Google Scholar