Collective agent in science: towards the issue of responsibility

The author focuses on the collective labor organization actively used in modern society, leading to the formation of collaborations, in which large teams of scientists become the authors of scientific developments. This article discusses a number of issues such as the collective agent of cognition, a new type of authorship of the collective agent, forms of responsibility for the results of its activity, hyperauthorship, and the independent cognitive value of group knowledge. The author concludes that it is necessary to introduce an ethical component into scientific research, taking into account the value foundations of decision-making by collective agents and the value characteristics of their projects’ results.