Evolution and future of human possibilities of gaining knowledge

Abstract

Palaeontology, ethology and psychology, on the one hand, and comparative theology, on the other, have gathered together so much information and speculation on the path of humankind that an attempt to summarize all this seems justified. This is done with the help of a scheme (see preceding page) that clearly distinguishes between the two known types of human cognition:

• synthetic-intuitive, ‘holistic’ cognition, and

• analytic-rational cognition.

The roots of both approaches can be traced back far into the animal kingdom, but perhaps the origins of intuitive insight and cognition appear to be more obscure than the equally revolutionary advent of causative perception. Humankind became ‘human’ largely through the gift of ‘conscience’, which can be seen as the cornerstone as well as the driving force of everything that has evolved as part of cultural evolution.