THE GENESIS OF COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS AS AN AGENT OF THE NOOSPHERE: CRITERIA FOR THE TRANSITION FROM HOMO SAPIENS TO HOMO CONSCIOUS

Legostaeva Ekaterina S., Presnetsov Evgenii E.

Background. This article explores the hypothesis that the emergence of collective consciousness served as a pivotal factor driving humanity's technological and social development from the Neolithic period onward. Objectives. To analyze the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of collective consciousness. Study Participants. The study compares L.S. Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory, C.G. Jung's analytical psychology, Y.N. Harari's historical-anthropological approach, M. Lieberman's social neuroscience, and V.I. Vernadsky's noosphere doctrine. Methods. Utilizing structural-analytical and synthetic-theoretical methodologies applied to the aforementioned conceptual frameworks, a comparative examination of the phenomena of individual consciousness, collective consciousness, and collective intelligence is undertaken, with the objective of explicating a hitherto unarticulated constituent of noospheric organization—collective consciousness functioning as an autonomous agent. Results. Through examination of historical and cultural evidence, the evolution of collective representations from animism to monotheism is traced, revealing three key parameters: quantitative (critical population threshold), qualitative (adequate neurocognitive development level, including the "social brain"), and temporal (sustained transmission of cultural patterns, establishment of sign-symbolic systems and archetypal structures). Conclusions. The study concludes that collective consciousness constitutes a systemic property of large human groups, characterized by autonomy and self-preservation, requiring an interdisciplinary approach for comprehensive investigation.

Keywords:collective consciousness, species transition, sociogenesis, neurocognitive development, collective intelligence, archetype, sign-symbolic system, cultural-historical theory, social brain, agent of the noosphere