The Evolution of Modern Human Thought- A Hegelian Approach

We think! Necessary thoughts, unnecessary thoughts, we believe in many ways. To know the
origin of view, one has to go to the modern man and his intellectual beginnings.

Timeline of Homo sapiens:

About 200,000 years ago, modern humans such as Homo sapiens or Man The Wise arrived.
People could not think as much in the beginning as we can now. When something is created, it
continues to evolve. Homo erectus and Homo neanderthal are two more species discussed as
the species of humans. Homo erectus came to this earth about two million years ago, and
Neanderthals arrived 230,000 years ago. It is said that our ancestral sapiens began their triumph
by fighting the Neanderthals.

About fifty thousand years ago, Homo sapiens radically changed their behaviour. At this stage,
new developments of thought begin to occur. People go one step further. From this time,
modern people began to differentiate themselves from each other. After death, the corpse
undergoes burial. One starts covering his or her private parts. But at this point, the most horrible
thought begins, and that is to kill someone of one's kind for one's self-interest, which makes a
modern human a more terrible predator.

The most ancient artefacts of man were found about thirty-five thousand years ago, which is a
reflection of our thinking. Homo sapiens could think of alternatives, so they were very different
from other species. The evolution of their thinking gave rise to humanity, but with society began
various forms of violence and hatred.

At first, modern people were not like that. Their social system was primitive communal. Those
who have read Marx, Engels can easily understand this term. During this time they lived in
groups and hunted together, collected fruits and protected each other and at this time the
expansion of agricultural work began.

Then, about ten thousand years ago, along with a radical change in agriculture, animal
husbandry began. At this time, people began to use their intellect through various animal
husbandry, and people began to use the material world around them. It seems to me that the
reason why man is unique is that he has made the material world usable through human
thought in a way that no other animal can. For example, if a beast trying to attack you, you will
try to find a stick or a stone around it and hit it with it, or you will run away. But, If you are trying
to hit a beast, the beast will attack with its organs. Yes, the question may come to your mind
now that chimpanzees can use objects or birds can weave their nests with the help of grass
herbs they use items. Still, they cannot overtake the material world as humans can, only survival
instinct works in them. Only modern humans can bring a piece of wood into different shapes
because they can think of alternatives.

About five and a half thousand years ago, modern people started using metals, melting different
metals, taking the material world into their own hands and inventing many things through the
application of their intellect and thought.

Until five thousand years ago, people did everything realistically and reviewed them realistically
through thought. The revolutionary change in human thought began when writing originated five
thousand years ago, and this writing brought about a radical change in everything.

A Hegelian Approach to understand human evolution:

Thus the thought of common and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values,
reason, mind and language is awakened in the sense of the modern man. How did it begin?
Why the conflict of thought? In this case, we can talk about the famous philosopher Hegel.
Hegel's thinking was dialectic. In Hegel's treatment of logic, thinking dwells on itself, rather than
trying to comprehend the world. In his science of logic, he talks about three kinds of
contradiction, and these are- Being, essence and notion. Hegel clearly stated that partiality is
untrue and universality is true.

Now, the human mind comes through an evolutionary contradiction. According to Hegel, we can
think in three ways. These are,

Thesis

Antithesis and
Synthesis

So, how we know? According to Hegel, learning is an act. We know things because of our self-
consciousness. Thus the evolution of our thinking is happening and will happen. So, how the
human begins his development with a contradictory stage? I will discuss it through Hegel's
dialectic thinking.

Suppose someone gave a theory and someone gave an idea against it, and at this stage, a new
approach was presented by combining two things without accepting or rejecting any of them.
Again this coordinated theory is transformed into a thesis, and in turn, it is again antithesis and
also synthesis. Thus it goes on periodically through the conflict of thought. This stage is gradual
mobility but never stops. It always goes on like this. We can give an example of science. Before
Albert Einstein, Newtonian physics was known as the main focal point of advanced science.
Later, Einstein proposed his theory of relativity and brought a threat to Newtonian physics. But,
the matter of fact is that Einstein didn't exclude Newtonian physics, through Newtonian physics
he developed his theory of relativity.

No one else has been able to explain the contradiction of our thinking in the way Hegel did. This
dialectical method of his later drew a complete response among thinkers. In particular, the
society we live in today is mostly the result of the influence of Hegel's dialectical thinking. Kal
Marx, he changed the dialectical method to a new dimension. He gives the idea of dialectical
materialism or historical materialism by combining dialectic thinking from Hegel and took the
concept of materialism from Feuerbach.

Hegel's dialectical thinking later created the Hegelian left, the Hegelian right, and the Hegelian
moderate. The Hegelian leftists have mainly tried to keep Hegel's mainstream alive or to retain
all the original Hegel concepts.

In contrast, the Hegelian rightists have been attempting to maintain the whole idea of Hegel.
The Hegelian moderates have taken the necessary information from Hegel. Our current society
is multifaceted. The capitalism, communism and everything in this society is a product of the
conflict of thought.

Then it can be said that if we go to the beginning of modern human intellect, we will find the
conflict of thought. The battle of thought trend is prevalent nowadays. The role of the war of
study in the analysis of society and the state system is immense. We are currently living in the
developed world. There is a lot of history, war, chaos and abandonment behind this
development. Of all the animals on earth, the only man can think through conflict, and it is this
feature of man that sets man apart from all other animals and makes a man a skilled creature.
If we go back two thousand years from today, we will see a form of social system where the
social structure may have been very shaky, but that social system has not been permanent. The
social network has changed through conflict. Two thousand years from now, we may not have
this social system; a lot will change in this social system; it can be said without a doubt. Science
will change, people will change, and life will change. But when will it be? The simple answer is
through conflict, the conflict between man and human thought.

References#

Sapiens- Yuval Noah Harari.

The Science of Logic- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Understanding the Evolution of Human Thought

Hegel for beginners

Author Information#

Lawha Mahfuz

Department of Philosophy, University of Chittagong.

Email: mlmahfuz.2013@gmail.com