Epistemological features of collective cognitive processes

Epistemology today is, in fact, the epistemology of an individual cognitive process. The collective component of scientific creativity is taken into account by modern epistemology only in the form of recognizing the need for scientists to use the language, scientific and instrumental developments of their predecessors and contemporaries. The fundamental importance of the scientist’s immersion in the culture is also recognized. The problem is that the collective component of scientific creativity is manifested for each researcher not only in these already identified and recognized aspects. Our knowledge of cognitive processes shows that modern science sometimes produces unusual «population» effects, which epistemology cannot «see» for now and does not take into account. The article discusses several of such collective epistemological effects.