The Process of Understanding as the Foundation of Political Thinking: on the Trap of Reifying Thought

Abstract

The basic thesis justified in the essay defines the relationship between the nature of cognitive processes attributable to humans and politics defined as the space of possible interactions between humans determined at the level of cultural artifacts in the form of ideas. It is based on fundamental distinctions about learning systems (cognitive systems) defining the ways (possibilities) in which they process information and the resulting cognitive limitations. In this approach, the human mind is one cognitive system. The thesis has the following formulation: if the process of understanding is the foundation of political thinking, then the reification of thought at the level of cultural artifacts is a cognitive trap that locks thinking, and political thinking in particular, into a tradition of copying and reproducing these artifacts. It is a process that leads to cognitive pathology at the social and political level, which is characterized by the hegemony of memory and imitation and, as a consequence, arbitrarily limits not only the scope of thinking but also the way we relate to the world. The above process renders meaningless the relationship between understanding and knowledge, transforming the latter into a mummified artifact of collective memory. Consequently, the artifacts of collective memory in the form of ideas become secondary objects or products that enter the political market, becoming elements of political circulation, alienated from their source and original function.