The Child’s and the Practical View of Space

Abstract

In this chapter we are considering the core of the unsophisticated-fused pattern of thought — the evolution of the child’s view to that of the practical view of the untutored adult. In these views we do not find a high degree of conceptual separation between subjective and objective and space and substance. What conceptual separation develops depends on the use of symbols. In general, we can say that the growth and development of individuals and species is characterised by several interrelated processes: the increasing complexity of the organism, its increasingly complex assessment of its environment, and the increasingly complex interrelationships between the environment and the organism.¹ In the earlier stages of development the organism’s parts are not very specialised. There are few centres of organisation and control. The activities of the organism are not well integrated hierarchically and a few or even one action may often involve the entire body, so that the organism cannot attend to more than a limited number of things at a time. In such circumstances, an organism’s actions are said to be global and syncretic.² In later stages the actions become more discrete, differentiated, articulated and hierarchically integrated.³