The Processual Form of Thinking. A New Perspective from Developmental Philosophy

Abstract

Many contemporary theories of human cognition focus on the biochemical mechanisms that lie beneath the mind’s operations, while neglecting the historical and developmental aspects of the human mind. This article argues (1) that a processual form of thinking has been developing since the Modern Era. Furthermore, it maintains (2) that this particular form of thinking is intrinsically connected with the historical phenomenon of the scientific revolution. The paper studies Günter Dux’s innovative historico-genetic approach to the development of thought in historical process. It also analyses the processual form of thinking under specific conceptual aspects of Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism. The present study also reveals (3) the connection between the developmental and the historical aspects of the evolution of thought. Overall, the study found (4) that there is an anthropological cognitive mechanism behind the historical forms of thought usually related to the elaborated figure of explanation.