Abstract
According to Margaret Gilbert, two or more people collectively believe that p if and only if they are jointly
committed to believe that p as a body. But the way she construes joint commitment in her account – as a
commitment of and by the several parties to “doing something as a body” – encourages the thought that
the phenomenon accounted for is not that of genuine belief. I explain why this concern arises and explore
a different way of construing joint commitment, in order to avoid the concern. This leads me to propose a
revised Gilbertian account of collective belief, according to which two or more people collectively believe
that p if and only if they are jointly committed to p as true.