I should warn readers who would prefer an account that treated apologies as a black and white matter that collective apologies only lay on a few more coats of gray. Corporations, governments, religions, sports teams, families, and various collections of people issue what they describe as “apologies.” Whereas most of the preceding arguments concerned apologies from individuals to individuals, we also find apologies from individuals to collectives, collectives to individuals, and collectives to collectives. Each variety presents distinct issues for consideration. From the outset, I want to make clear that I do not doubt that groups of people can categorically apologize. I do believe, however, that collective categorical apologies are even more uncommon than individual categorical apologies.

We can begin by considering a relatively simple case. Recall the previous example of my failure to meet a friend for dinner because I decided at the last moment that I preferred to see a film. Now suppose that I was not alone in this transgression but that my wife and I jointly decided that we would leave our friend waiting. We later come to regret our decision and realize that we should apologize to her. We can individually satisfy each element of a categorical apology and issue it as a collective, perhaps by collaboratively drafting a letter that we both sign and discuss with our friend.