Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind · chapter 2 · id sapiens-c2-03-humans-can-cooperate-in-large-

“Humans can cooperate in large numbers because they share 'imagined realities' -- gods, nations, money, laws -- that exist only in collective belief. This capacity for shared fiction is what distinguishes Sapiens from other species.”

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Receipts

Searle (1995), The Construction of Social Reality, Free PressFLAGGED: DOI not in registry

Institutional facts (money, marriage, property) exist only through collective acceptance of constitutive rules: 'X counts as Y in context C.' These are facts, not fictions -- they have real causal power.

Anderson (1983/2006), Imagined Communities, VersoDOI registry: valid

Nations are 'imagined communities' -- members will never meet most co-members yet hold an image of communion. This concept predates Harari's 'imagined realities' by 28 years.

Tomasello (2014), A Natural History of Human Thinking, Harvard UPFLAGGED: DOI not in registry

Shared intentionality -- the ability to form shared goals and plans -- is uniquely human and enables cumulative culture and large-scale cooperation.

This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us — corrections are loud here.