The Development of Thought: From Emotional Reaction to Rational Understanding
Human thinking is not a fixed ability - it develops. What we commonly call “reason” is in fact the result of a long internal process: the gradual construction of an inner mental structure that mirrors reality as accurately as possible. This structure is not built overnight. It evolves through stages, shaped by experience, emotion, abstraction, and logic.
Understanding how thinking develops is essential - not only to improve reasoning, but to recognize why people cling to dogmas, fall into black-and-white thinking, or resist new facts. The journey from primitive thought to a fully developed mind reveals why truth is difficult, why emotions so often dominate reason, and how genuine understanding becomes possible.
The Goal of Mental Development: Aligning Thought with Reality
The ultimate aim of mental development is correct knowledge - a mental structure that reflects reality as it truly is. Every experience, object, person, and event leaves impressions in the mind. Over time, these impressions become memories and concepts, which are linked together through associations.
The more developed the mind, the more interconnected these concepts become. Thinking then resembles a network rather than a chain: each idea is related to many others, allowing reality to be understood in context rather than in isolation.
When mental development is weak, thoughts remain disconnected. Isolated ideas are mistaken for absolute truths, and parts of reality are confused with the whole. This produces distorted conclusions and shallow understanding. Mental growth, therefore, is not about accumulating facts, but about building meaningful relations between them.
Self-Consciousness and the Role of Attention
Self-consciousness is the foundation of human thinking. It is not merely awareness, but the active capacity to direct attention, thoughts, and actions deliberately. Animals possess consciousness in the sense that they can act and react. Humans alone possess self-consciousness - the ability to reflect, reason, and intentionally guide thought.
Attention is the instrument of this faculty. Where attention goes, thought follows. Without self-consciousness, deliberate thinking would be impossible.
As mental connections increase, thinking becomes clearer and more precise. Instead of perceiving facts as isolated absolutes, the mind begins to see relationships, ratios, degrees, and conditions. Reality is no longer reduced to simplistic categories - it is understood as layered, relative, and complex.
Stage One: Primitive Thinking and Emotional Dominance
The earliest stage of thinking is concrete and immediate. The mind focuses on directly observable objects, people, and events. Reasoning is linear and simplistic, based on personal experience rather than broader context.
At this level, emotions dominate. Thinking originally develops under emotional pressure, emerging from bodily urges and survival instincts. When emotions prevail, reasoning is weak. Thoughts become emotionally charged and are therefore perceived as unquestionable truths.
Because alternative factors are not considered, conclusions are absolute and rigid. This is the psychological root of black-and-white thinking: the inability to integrate multiple perspectives into a coherent whole.
Change at this stage is difficult. New ideas challenge emotionally ingrained beliefs, triggering inner conflict. To avoid discomfort, the mind often clings to familiar patterns - even when they are incorrect.
Stage Two: Abstraction, Concepts, and Worldviews
As thinking develops, the mind begins to form concepts - mental groupings of experiences related to objects, people, or events. These concepts can then be combined into larger abstractions: principles, theories, plans, and belief systems.
This ability to abstract allows humans to recognize patterns, anticipate the future, and construct worldviews - religious, scientific, or philosophical. However, abstraction introduces a new danger: when based on insufficient facts or emotional attachment, entire mental systems can become partially fictional.
People often resist abandoning such systems not because of logic, but because of emotional investment. Emotions evolved long before rational thought and still exert powerful influence. When emotions govern thinking, dogmatism arises: beliefs are preserved regardless of contradictory evidence.
Logic emerges here as a corrective tool - the method by which the mind checks whether its internal constructions actually correspond to reality.
Emotionality and the Trap of Two-Valued Thinking
Emotionality operates through polarity: positive or negative, attraction or aversion. When thinking is undeveloped, this emotional polarity overlays reasoning, reducing complexity to extremes.
This results in two-valued thinking - good versus bad, true versus false, right versus wrong - without nuance or context. Isolated, emotionally charged thoughts are treated as final truths.
As mental development progresses, associations multiply. Thoughts become less isolated, less emotionally absolute, and more relational. Black-and-white judgments dissolve as the mind begins to recognize gradients, conditions, and interdependencies.
The task of human development is therefore to free reason from emotional dominance, allowing thinking to operate independently.
Advanced Stage: Relational Thinking and Integrated Knowledge
Once thinking is sufficiently developed, it becomes largely self-sustaining. A mature thinker derives pleasure from understanding, from discovering connections, and from forming correct conclusions.
Reality is recognized as a web of relationships, accessible from multiple perspectives. Apparent paradoxes dissolve when additional factors are considered. What once seemed contradictory is revealed as incomplete understanding.
At the highest stage, emotional attachments to ideas disappear. The mind no longer defends beliefs - it evaluates them. It recognizes that no system of thought is complete and therefore seeks insight across many systems.
A fully developed mind synthesizes ideas, extracts essentials, and focuses on reality rather than labels or formulations. It values truth over identity, understanding over certainty, and complexity over simplicity.
Summary: The Path of Thinking Development
Mental development follows a clear trajectory:
From concrete objects to abstract principles
From emotional dominance to rational autonomy
From absolute judgments to relative understanding
From linear thoughts to nested networks of meaning
Primitive thinking is emotional, rigid, and isolated. Advanced thinking is relational, flexible, and grounded in reality. The more connections the mind builds, the closer it comes to truth.
Ultimately, a developed mind does not think in one way - it considers all ways. It is not attached to single ideas and concepts, but devoted to understanding reality as it is.
