Some ppl say 'the collective is more intelligent than the individual'; do you agree? Why?

Question

By Intelligence is meant the ability to percieve, to put and to solve problems.

I think of Bell, Newton, Pitagoras, Tchaikowski, Churchil, ..., ..., just to say that the big achievements were made by individuals... This is opposite to the statement that the collective is MORE INTELLIGENT than the individual.

Answer 1

No, generally the opposite is true.

Answer 2

This is a very Jungian concept but I believe that it is a good concept except for the fact tha we as a culture have a tendency to fall into a trap which is termed as "Group Think". This is the cause of some of our greatest man made disasters. Two heads are better than one is a saying that is very common in our culture, but sometimes that is not true due to things like the "bystanders effect" happening. So the point here is that yes I believe that the collective is more intelligent than the individual but there are obstacles to overcome. I have referenced two of the problems so that you can explore them at your leisure.

Answer 3

I would tend to agree with them, that the collective is more intelligent than the individual because with the collective you have a gathering of unique thought that could combine to "work together" for a common goal.
If you study how groups work together, you will find that not everyone contributes in a group setting. But if there were some way to collectively gather only relevant/helpful information information from each member of the group, each individual could contribute to the "conflict" and come up with a more sophisticated, well-rounded answer than the individual.

Answer 4

Disagree. Look at modern politics.

The collective is far less intelligent than the individual...but only if the individual is highly intelligent.

The collective has an average...which in some areas it could drop to the level of the person that is below average.

It's kind of like the old saying that the chain is as strong as it's weakest link....and in a large crowd of people, I wouldn't trust too many links to be intact. I'd rather go it alone anyday than follow a bunch of others....

Answer 5

Can be more - can be less

Sometimes a collection of people will do something that an individual knows to be ridiculous - Waco etc.

However it is by collective intelligence that we have the knowledge we have today. The passing of knowledge from one to another means that we do niot have to have learnt it all 1st hand. who could desine a car without knowing the 1st thing about metals.

Answer 6

The research shows this to be true.

The answer lies in the fact that experts have usually all been trained along the same lines and are therefore relatively closed to new ideas, whereas the general public contains a much wider range of experience and ideas.

This can be seen easily in team work, where if all the people in a team are of similar character, they don't do as well as a diverse team.

Answer 7

Have you ever heard the old saying?
"A camel is just a horse designed by committee".

Maybe the collective has more intelligence than one man but there's a big difference between intelligence and wisdom.

Answer 8

No, they simply have more minds to use instead of the one and most likely when cornered, they all scatter, now how can any of them claim intelligence except as a group. no one on one, no pin pointing.

Answer 9

not necessarily. a group just gives variety and maybe a combination of thoughts is better than an aindividuals. but it could work either way depending on the situation.

Answer 10

In 'collective-consciousness' there is an implied communication... and in that, there is a higher intellectual achievement socially....that works for me.