Are Terrorists Collectively Responsible for Their Extreme Beliefs?

Abstract This chapter discusses in what sense terrorist actors can hold collective responsibility for their extreme beliefs. Such beliefs may concern—more narrowly—the legitimacy of their actions (including the moral status of the victims of direct violence), their prospects of success, and whether violence is their last resort, or—more broadly—sociopolitical matters in general. Generally speaking, individuals have epistemic obligations to engage in actions that preserve or improve their epistemic position. However, in epistemically impoverished environments, opportunities for improving their epistemic position will be curtailed. Individual epistemic agents are not usually in a position to significantly change those environments on their own—this requires a collective effort. Consequently, this chapter suggests that responsibility for extreme beliefs—including in terrorist groups—is in some cases better understood as a shared epistemic responsibility and in others as a form of epistemic complicity.