Collective intuition as an object of socio-psychological research

Abstract

Addressing the problem of collective intuition concerns the fact that, on the one hand, this phenomenon really exists and is widespread in various spheres of public life, and on the other – that social psychology has not yet paid the appropriate attention to the study of nature and mechanisms of collective intuition, opportunities, overcoming misconceptions, and refutation of various mystifications.
Due to the existing contradictions in the understanding of intuition’s psychological nature and essence in general, as well as its collective derivative, this paper formulated and substantiated a number of theoretical positions.
It is outlined the relatively independent ontological and epistemological status of intuition, which denies the possibility of its understanding as an everyday analog of the scientific concept of anticipation, or as a kind of mental, mnemonic or perceptual activity.
Intuition is shown as a mental system element that functions at the intersection of conscious and unconscious, rational and irrational, logical and sensory, conceptual and figurative modes of mental activity, which explains its ability to holistically reflect and construct reality as a unique existence.
Intuition is also shown as a kind of mental activity that has its own functional structure.
Collective intuition is presented as a way and means of solving problems that are not solvable by personal intuition; collective intuition is considered as a result of the integration of individual intuitions, which by its functionality exceeds the arithmetic sum of those ones.
There are also outlined the socio-psychological features of the functional structure of collective-intuitive activity.