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Wholeness and Collective Intention

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Abstract

This paper argues that the relationship between the individual and the whole in holism can be solved from the two dimensions of emergence and identity. Emergence addresses whether the whole has irreducible properties, and identity explains the relationship between the individual and the individual as a collective member. From the perspective of emergence, collective intention is a combination of common content in individual intentions. It has only composition but no whole emergence, and this combination makes intentionality take a collective form. From the perspective of identity, individuals and individuals as collective members are consistent. The “collective” in collective intention refers to the common part of the individual’s intention, and its actual bearer is still the individual participating in the “common part”. Collective intention can be reduced to individual properties and their mutual relations, which are rooted in the relational existence of people.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Social Science Fund of China (18BZX036).

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  1. School of Marxism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Office 403, School of Marxism, Law Building, 800 Dongchuan Rd., 200240, Shanghai, China

    Haitao Liu

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  1. Haitao Liu
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Correspondence to Haitao Liu.

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Liu, H. Wholeness and Collective Intention. Integr. psych. behav. 56, 206–217 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09591-8

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