In a real Goethean conversation, where people are treating the occasion simultaneously as an artistic performance and as an exercise of the understanding, the field phenomenon that arises depends on everyone participating in a specific way. The resonance characteristics of each individual add to the total field, and resonance characteristics at odds with the intentionality of the overall pattern have a canceling effect on the phenomenon. Call this:

(P6) Principle of the weakest link (principle of collective intelligence).

For collective intelligence to emerge during a conversation, it is not necessary that no disagreements arise. Well-expressed oppositions are just as useful in conversation as completely expressed agreements. What works against collective intelligence is misunderstanding, either through intellectual failure or through morally insensitive self-assertion.

When someone misunderstands or misrepresents the spirit the group is working with, everything needs to stop and attention of the right sort needs to be deployed in the direction of the weakest link. The right sort of attention in this circumstance is generally classified as love.

Real conversation cannot exceed the capacity of the individual who represents the weakest moral or intellectual link among those present.