ABSTRACT
The oldest extant arguments for collective intelligence, and many scathing arguments against it, are found here. Athenian democracy was, at its core, an experiment in collective intelligence; over two centuries, citizen expertise was the engine of its success. It was one of these sophists, Protagoras, who may have first articulated an argument for democracy as a form of collective intelligence That this great work of the past can be carried further among all races and nations no one can reasonably doubt. In Du Bois as in Mill, therefore, the authors find appeals to both the epistemic and eudaimonic value of collective intelligence. To call on collective intelligence is not to deny the need for experts, but rather to expand our understanding of the expertise that matters. In Dewey;s view, democracy is no more or less than collective intelligence put to public use.
