Forholdet mellem individets og samfundets historiske udviklingslogik

Abstract

Apparently some parallel characteristics between individual and societal development can be found. The purpose of the present article is to investigate how far the experience of such parallels is due to accidental analogy rather than to a causal relationship. Based on an analysis of the evolution and anatomical structure of the brain, it is argued that cortex, which is the latest established area, must be regarded as the organ which makes the appropriation of civilisation possible. However, the preconditions of this process can not be found in the brain itself, but in the organization and function of the surrounding society. Thus a possible coherence between the development principles of the individual and society must have its basis in a coherence between the principle patterns of practical activity which can be found in the history of the individual and the society respectively.
It is concluded that when some prarallels between the developmental principles of individual and societal history can be found, it is due to a causal relationship caused by the very nature of human working processes and cognition.