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The European Miracle Psychological Stages and the Origin of Modern Society

January 2020
Journal of Social Sciences 16(1):84-99

DOI:10.3844/jssp.2020.84.99

Authors:

Georg Oesterdiekhoff

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 3.0 license.

Journal of Social Sciences

Original Research Paper

The European Miracle

Psychological Stages and the Origin of Modern Society

1Georg Oesterdiekhoff, 2Jörn Rüsen and 3Hans-Jürgen Hummell

1Department of Sociology, Karlsruhe Institute for Sociology, Germany

2Department of History, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Germany

3Department of Sociology, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Article history

Received: 19-02-2020

Revised: 23-04-2020

Accepted: 12-05-2020

Corresponding Author:

Georg Oesterdiekhoff

Department of Sociology,

Karlsruhe Institute for

Sociology, Germany

Email: oesterdiekhoff@t-online.de

Abstract: The idea that the rise of modern, industrial society originates in

psychological advancements is to find among classic authors of sociology

and history such as Comte, Elias and Lamprecht and more recently

described by Habermas. It will be shown that central transformations within

sciences, industrial economy, political structures, Enlightenment,

humanitarian revolution, law, painting, music and literature having taken

place during the emergence of modern society actually originate in

psychological stage advancements. Thus, there is a deep connection

between psychological stages on the one side and historical

transformations leading to modern society on the other side. It is

therefore necessary to combine Piagetian psychology with historical

data and sociological considerations.

Keywords: Psychological Stages, Social Transformations, Modern,

Industrial Society, Modern Europe, Rise of the West

Introduction

Modern, industrial society started in Britain after 1750

roughly, followed by continental Europe from about 1830

onwards. North America, Russia and Japan joined this

transformation only a few decades later. Modern, industrial

society consisted mainly of breakthroughs in physical

sciences and engineering, industrial technologies,

foundation of factories and mining companies, increase of

agricultural productivity, expansion of secondary and

tertiary sector, introduction of compulsory school

attendance, decline of birth rates, Enlightenment, extension

of public functions, constitutional state, parliamentarianism

and later on frequently democratic structures.

Modern, industrial society did not only originate

completely new structures but abolished also structures

that existed for long, since antiquity or even Stone Ages.

It surmounted so for the first time in history the magical-

animistic worldview with its belief in witches, sorcerers,

ghosts and natural gods. It erased the belief in myths and

collective fantasies and weakened the power and impact

of religion. It replaced the cruel punishment law of

premodern society, lasting back to the Stone Ages, by

the system of imprisonment. It abolished slavery,

feudalism and other forms of serfdom by the instalment

of liberty rights. Later on it forbade the duel culture and

physical violence against women, children and

dependent persons. It strengthened the rights of workers

and minorities and protected poor persons, children and

animals from maltreatment.

Thus, modern, industrial society has attained a new

stage of culture and civilization, unparalleled and unique

in the humankind´s history. Therefore, modern society

seems to have not only more economic, technological

and scientific power and achievement but has also

attained higher stages in civilization, education, morals

and manners. Consequently, the essence of modern

society is not capitalism, as Marx and his followers have

believed. Its essence rather is civilization, as already

Lubbock, Darwin and Elias surmised.

From a certain viewpoint, it is possible to group the

existing theories that try to explain the rise of modern,

industrial society into two classes, the materialistic-

economic-institutional and the socio-psychological theory

type (Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a: 29-48; 2011: 25-39). To the

first type belong economic theories that focus capital

investments, free markets, or free property rights as

causes to the rise of the (Western) capitalism. To the

same group belong also Marxian ideas of colonialism

and the theory of the world system with its peripheries

and centers, that is, theories that regard international

inequalities and exploitation of the South as central to

the explanation related. To this group have to be added

also sociological theories that earmark class

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DOI: 10.3844/jssp.2020.84.99

constellations, state structures, or struggles for power

(e.g., Diamond, 1998; Frank and Gills, 1993; Jones,

1987; North and Thomas, 1973; North, 1990; Sanderson,

1999; Smith, 1776; Wallerstein, 1974; Wittfogel, 1957).

One of the problems of these by now prevailing

approaches is, even at first glance, that they cannot really

cover and earmark the transformations in morals,

manners and politics, the explosion in sciences,

philosophy, literature and arts. The Marxian distinction

of Basis and Überbau is superficial as the scientific

revolution is even central to the industrial technologies,

industrial revolution and economic growth. It appears as

rather more convincing to conceive the industrial uprise

as being only one manifestation of the increase of mental

abilities to that likewise belong the transformations in

politics, morals, education, arts, music, literature and

manners. Accordingly, research has shown that

investments, property rights, class constellations, or

power conflicts did not trigger the beginning of

modern, industrial civilization (Pomeranz, 2001;

Mokyr, 1990; Jacob, 1997; Landes, 1998;

Oesterdiekhoff, 2005; 2007; 2011; 2013a; 2014a).

The socio-psychological theories have therefore

combined institutional and psychological factors with

regard to the explanatory problem mentioned. They exist

in weaker forms when regarding psychological

phenomena as being only additional factors and when

conceiving only some superficial elements (discipline,

empathy, flexibility, achievement motivation, etc.) of

the (modern) mentality and not their very

fundamentals (e.g., Weber, 1987; Lerner, 1958;

Inkeles, 1974; Landes, 1969). Intermediary stages

may be reached when the authors refer to the

comparison of ontogeny and history on a substandard

level, as Comte, Lubbock and Elias (1982) had done.

It will be demonstrated here that the developmental

approach discloses both the origins and the nature of

modern, industrial society. It can be shown that the

modern humankind has developed the adolescent stage

of formal operations stepwise during the past few

centuries, while the premodern humankind stayed on

psychological stages that are nowadays to find only

among children. Only some percentages of people

attained intermediary stages. Premodern humans differ

from children by experience and knowledge but not by

their psychological stage structures. Developmental and

cross-cultural psychology has evidenced these facts in a

clear and encompassing way. Therefore, this kind of

developmental theory is the strongest version within the

range of the socio-psychological theories and is the key

to understand the rise of modern, industrial society. As

already mentioned, Comte, Lubbock and Elias expressed

this idea on a yet scanty basis, Schultze (1900), Ziégler

(1968) and Habermas (1989) elaborated this approach more

distinctly. The structural-genetic theory programme,

however, has delivered a complete theory of modern

society in terms of developmental psychology

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2007; 2014a; 2014b). It will be shown here

that every manifestation of modernization in sciences,

economics, politics, law, morals, arts, literature, etc. has to

be explained in terms of developmental psychology. The

rise of modern society simply is a manifestation of higher

psychological stages of the people.

It is necessary to outline here the methodology

underlying the whole framework and argumentation.

Developmental and cross-cultural psychology is used to

reconstruct the history of sciences, industrial economy,

Enlightenment, humanitarian revolution, democracy and

fine arts. Cross-cultural data concerning human

development are applied to phenomena usually described

by ethnographic and historical methods and

considerations only. It is shown that by using these

empirical data it is possible not only to describe the

historical phenomena (as being done usually by

historians and sociologists) but to explain them. Humans

had to elevate the formal operational stage to be able to

create sciences, industrial economy, enlightened morals,

ideas and values, democracy and modern arts. Thus,

the systematic application of cross-cultural Piagetian

data, won by empirical surveys, to the historical

development of mind during the early modern times

was necessary to find the key to the explanation of

these historical developments. Insofar the approach

consists of the combination of empirical data, won

both by child and cross-cultural psychology, and

notions won by history, ethnology and sociology.

Developmental, Historical and Cross-

Cultural Psychology

Many representatives or even founders of the human

and social disciplines during the 19th and early 20th

century discovered similarities between children and

premodern adults. Likewise most psychoanalysts and

almost every (!) founder and early representative of child

or developmental psychology described these

correspondences mentioned. Schultze (1900) and Werner

(1948) dedicated whole monographs to them. Jean Piaget

described these parallels in most of his writings (Ibarra,

1994). He discriminated four stages of human

development. The sensorymotor stage of the suckling is

followed by the preoperational stage, dominant between

1;6 and 8 years roughly. The preoperational stage is

positively characterized by the acquisition of language

and reasoning, anticipation and memory and negatively

by the dominance of magic and superstition and by lack

of abstraction and logic. It is the stage that mainly

corresponds to the mind of greater parts of premodern

humankind. The third stage, that of the concrete

operations, unfolds between the 6th and the 12th year of

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age. It entails some forms of logic and abstractions

regarding visual objects and erases greater parts of the

magical-animistic worldview. It was first established by

the Ionian philosophers, as Piaget described. The fourth

stage, the stage of formal operations, manifests stepwise

and increasingly between the 10th and the 25th year of

age. It is divided in the substages A and B, with the latter

one coming into existence with 15 years roughly. It

entails combinatorial, experimental, logical and

theoretical-systematic reasoning abilities. The adolescent

understands and develops coherent theories and conquers

higher stages in morals and politics. The formal

operational stage erases the last rests of the childlike

magical-animistic and fairy tale worldview. According to

Piaget, the formal operational stage, now defining the

average adult in modern societies, developed historically

first among scientists of the 17th century. It spread

stepwise from these elites through some broader social

strata to the whole society, defining the normal course of

every modern human being not before the advanced 20th

century (Piaget and Inhelder, 1969).

Piagetian cross-cultural psychology researched

among ethnicities, social milieus and nations around the

globe since more than 80 years by now. More than 1.000

tests concerning stage assignments have been applied to

people from every race and nation. It was found that

people living in archaic, traditional, illiterate or

underprivileged social milieus stay on preoperational or

concrete operational stages, or on intermediary stages

covering the two mentioned. In any case premodern

people do not reach the formal operational stage, that is,

developmental ages of modern adolescents. Both test

results and ethnographic literature clearly show that the

biggest part of the premodern humankind from Stone

Ages to the eve of the modern world did not develop

beyond the preoperational stage. People living in modern

societies have been climbing on operational stages

stepwise from generation to generation over the past

centuries. Only the 20th century conveyed the formal

operational stage to being the modal stage of the people

(Ashton, 1975; Dasen and Berry, 1974; Dasen, 1977;

Luria, 1982; Mogdil and Mogdil, 1976; Oesterdiekhoff,

2016c; 2017a; Lévy-Bruhl, 1923; 1985). Thus, recent

cross-cultural empirical research confirmed the early

considerations of Schultze (1900), Werner (1948) and

Wallon (1928), but also of Elias (1982), Comte,

Lubbock and others (Weiler, 2011).

The tests found the parallels between children and

premodern adults regarding the whole range of

psychological life and world understanding, including

language, logic, physics, social affairs, law, politics,

morals, religion, etc. (Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a; 2011;

2009a; Mogdil and Mogdil, 1976; Ashton, 1975). There

is not one phenomenon typical for the child´s mind that

is not also a feature typical for premodern adults, down

to smallest details such as understanding of shadows,

waves, movements of projectiles, etc. The parallels are

therefore not context-dependent or area-limited but are

all-encompassing and deep-rooted. Therefore the

conclusion is inevitable that premodern peoples stay on

psychological stages of children (or some smaller

percentages on intermediary stages) but differ from them

in knowledge and life experience. Peoples living in

modern societies stay on stages of adolescents and differ

from them likewise by knowledge and experience.

However, modern peoples separate from premodern ones

by several developmental years, usually 5 to 10

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2016a; 2016c; 2017a). That fact

explains the huge differences in mind and behaviour

ethnography has detailed during the last three centuries

(Lévy-Bruhl, 1923; 1985).

The causes to these divergences cannot be racial-

biological but only cultural-educational factors, as cross-

cultural research can clearly show. Children very young

when moving from archaic milieus to modern

settlements develop divergently from their parents

(Mogdil and Mogdil, 1976; Dasen, 1977). The recent

rise of modern society on a global scale has caused stage

advancements within a few generations more or less

nearly everywhere. Premodern society usually has not

the means to force psychological development beyond

the 10th developmental year, often not beyond the 7th

developmental year. Conversely, modern society attracts

and forces children from their very first days to run

through the stages. Socialisation stimuli and open or

closed developmental windows are the concepts to

describe the possibilities to attain divergent

developmental stages (Oesterdiekhoff, 2009a; 2011;

2012; 2016a; 2016c; Werner, 1948).

Against this background it is necessary to rewrite

history, the history of language, population, economics,

society, culture, sciences, philosophy, politics, law,

religion, morals, violence, manners, etc. Smaller or

greater parts of this work have been already

accomplished (Habermas, 1989; Ziégler, 1968; Schultze,

1900; Oesterdiekhoff, 2011; 2009a; 2013a; 2014d;

2014e). The history of sciences is rewritten in terms of

developmental stages (Piaget and Garcia, 1989), likewise

the history of some medieval cultural patterns (Radding,

1985), the Maya and Aztec culture (Ibarra, 2007), the

history of painting (Gablik, 1976), the history of

literature (LePan, 1989) and further the history of

culture, religion, philosophy, law, economics, language,

politics and morals (Oesterdiekhoff, 2009a; 2011; 2013a;

2014c; 2014d; 2014e; 2015; 2016b; 2017b; 2019).

A central part within this transfer work is to explain

both the rise and nature of modern society in terms of

developmental stages. Therefore, the article will

reconstruct the modern transformations of sciences,

industry, Enlightenment, democracy, law, humanism,

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music, literature, arts and international power against the

knowledge developmental psychology provides. Thus,

modern society is essentially the societal manifestation

of certain psychological stage advancements.

Sciences

Without the emergence of the sciences during the

17th century, the sciences “im eigentlichen Sinne”, the

rise of modern, industrial society wouldn´t have been

possible. It can be shown, however, that the emergence

of the formal operational stage was the cause to the

rebirth of the sciences during that era. That alone

discerns the decisive role of developmental psychology

in explaining the rise of industrial society.

The new sciences started more or less with the

experiments of Galileo Galilei during the 1590ies,

reaching its early peak with the Principia of Isaac

Newton in 1687. The scientists of the 17th century

resorted to the achievements of the Hellenistic epoch that

had already developed the sciences to a considerable rate

possibly not fully recognized by now. Possibly was

Newton the first to parallel or to surmount scientists like

Archimedes, Hipparchos or Philon. Some authors

(Bailey, 1994) maintain that already the Mesopotamians

had the mathematical knowledge of Euclid around 2.000

B. C. However, what is known today is that the

Hellenistic era was the only era in antiquity with

developed sciences comparable to Europe around 1700

roughly. The Greeks themselves believed though that

they all had learned from Egypt and Mesopotamia. With

the breakdown of the Hellenistic sciences after the Roman

conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean ancient civilization

lost the formal operational stage already attained by their

small circle of scientists. Neither the Romans nor medieval

Europeans were intellectually capable to understand the

research conducted by the Hellenists. Leonardo da Vinci

and Galilei belonged to the first group of those who

succeeded in understanding the documents and in resuming

the ancient research (Russo, 2005).

The loss of formal operational stage in the ancient

intellectual elite let the childlike mythological and

magical-animistic worldview reappear, as it dominated

in the whole premodern world apart from the short

Hellenistic revolution. The intellectuals of the Middle

Ages adhered to theological and philosophical theories,

originating in the preoperational stage. They were not

true scientists in consequence of their lowered

psychological stage. They understood physics against the

background of animistic schemata and magical

influences, as children do by their tenth year at the latest.

For example, their theory of movement completely bases

on the animism of the child. They did not understand

physical laws on the formal operational stage level but as

the child understands them, namely as a confusion of

will and moral, as moral and judicial laws the

phenomena have to obey (Oesterdiekhoff, 2017c; 2013a:

287-329; Piaget and Garcia, 1989; Piaget, 1975).

The child´s animism and magic bases and structures

the medieval disciplines. Medieval astronomy

understands the celestial movements as intended

movements of living beings, seeing the stars and planets

as persons or gods wandering their circles. More, the

persons walk in the heavens because it is their duty to

march, as soldiers have to do when their officers call

them. This idea governing the child´s understanding of

astronomy was shared by the astronomers by the days of

Johannes Kepler. It was Isaac Newton who developed

astronomy as being a true science, thus elevating it to the

formal operational stage.

The same process took place in chemistry. The

medieval chemist regarded the chemical elements as

alive and tried to influence them by magical means. He

hoped to influence them by his words and to alleviate

their position in the cosmic hierarchy and to receive from

them some goods in exchange for his pleasant conduct.

Alchemy transformed to chemistry at that moment as the

experimenter started to regard the elements as dead

matter only reacting to external influences. During the

same decade as the chemists surmounted the magical-

animistic view in favour for the empirical-causal view

chemistry exploded as a science. The first generation of

chemists having attained the formal operational stage

developed chemistry as a true science and created masses of

discoveries, breakthroughs and bulks of knowledge,

changing sciences, technologies and economy. The first

generation of true chemists discovered more than all

generations of the whole Middle Ages together.

The same transformation took place in physics,

biology, medicine, geology, geography and the human

sciences. Altogether, the emergence of the formal

operational stage in the minds of the scientists was the

single cause to the rise of the physical sciences “im

eigentlichen Sinne” (Piaget, 1975; Piaget and Inhelder,

1958; Oesterdiekhoff, 2017c; 2013a: 287-329). The

formal operational stage is the cause to the explosion of

scientific knowledge during the early modern times,

giving the Western world the means to transform the

world completely. The other parts of the world followed

this transformation stepwise only during the 20th

century, if at all. Piaget and Garcia (1989) himself did

the most to reconstruct the development of sciences in

terms of developmental psychology.

Industrial Economy

The rise of industrial economy in the Western world

was not forced by economic constraints or enabled by

institutional opportunities as some classic approaches

assume but was the simple consequence of psychological

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stage advancements. Even at first glance this is

demonstrable when considering the circumstances of the

invention of the steam engine, the kernel technology of

the industrial revolution. Margaret Jacob (1997)

dedicated a whole monograph to show that the engine of

Watt and Boulton was not a simple piece of

craftsmanship, of practical knowledge only, or of simple

trial and error. It resulted from the newest achievements

gained in chemistry, physics, mathematics, metallurgy

and engineering. Without the physics developed by

Newton it wouldn´t have been possible to develop this

unheard masterpiece of technology (Gordon, 1988).

James Watt was a scientist communicating with Priestley

and Lavoisier. Therefore, the new industrial technologies

came from the new sciences and the new sciences came

from the newly developed formal operational stage.

Thus, not only the second industrial revolution taking

place at the end of the 19th century, with chemistry,

pharmacy, electricity and petrol industry as leading

branches, but already the first industrial revolution

originated in sciences and the formal operational stage

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2005; 2014a).

Of course, the formal operational stage is not only via

sciences the origin of the industrial economy. People

having attained advanced psychological stages are

inclined to improve their abilities throughout all aspects

and dimensions of their life and work, their professional

and private life. People staying on preoperational stages

blockade their life in consequence of their superstitions,

cruel customs, irrational beliefs and insane traditions.

They spent their savings to ancestors, let oracles decide

their judicial cases, kill innocent persons in case of

deaths because they believe every death comes from

magical assassinations, tend to blood revenge, etc. They

give birth to numerous children but cannot invest in their

education, often not in their simple nutrition. People

staying on preoperational stages cannot build up modern,

industrial economies, partly in consequence of their

manifold irrationalities and partly due to their lacking

operational competences (Staewen, 1991; Lévy-Bruhl,

1923; 1985; Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a: 549-580; 2011:

192-205; 2014a; 2014b).

Only people staying on operational stages develop

these higher forms of rationality that make industrial

economy possible to appear. That is what Piagetian

cross-cultural psychology involuntarily and the

structural-genetic theory programme deliberately have

proved. There is a clear correlation between primary and

secondary socialisation, compulsory school education,

psychological stage advancement, rationality in life

conduct and professional abilities on the one side and

economic growth, technological progress and wealth on

the other side. Micro-economy and macro-economy,

micro-sociology and macro-sociology have to be linked

this way. Human capital theory has to be based on

developmental psychology, not simply on pedagogic.

People on advanced psychological stages manifest

higher forms of self-discipline and peaceful behaviour,

have more organizational competences and foresight,

flexibility, responsibility and empathy. That is what Max

Weber (1987) in his Protestant Ethics formulated, on a

theoretically scanty basis and what Elias (1982) in his

Civilization Theory and Alex Inkeles (1974) in his theory

of Psychological Modernity described on a more

elaborated basis. A true insight, however, is only reached

by the consequently elaborated developmental approach.

Descriptions of entrepreneurial activities, of

behaviour of clerks and workers and related

computations of labour productivity in (former)

developing nations completely match both to the

descriptions of Weber, Elias and Inkeles and to the

descriptions of the developmental approach (Staewen,

1991; Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a: 549-580; 2011: 192-205;

2014a; 2014b; 2013b). Human capital formation via

education and corresponding psychological stage

advancements make economies grow, not simply

foreign capital investments, political reforms and

institutional changes. The latter ones create nothing

when the former ones are missing, while the first

phenomenon creates by itself capital and favourite

political and societal conditions altogether.

Enlightenment

The age of Enlightenment started roughly around

1700 and had its peak during the second half of the 18th

century. There must exist a systematic reason why the

age of Enlightenment fell nearly in the same epoch as

modern, industrial society came into being. More

precisely, the age of Enlightenment came more or less

some decades before the industrial epoch. Traditional

history or sociology could not answer to this question,

however, the structural-genetic theory programme can do

that. The age of Enlightenment is simply the intellectual

manifestation of the newly arisen formal operational

stage in worldview, religion, politics and ethics. When

developmental psychology explains history then changes

of thinking and mind have to be earlier than their

corresponding societal effects and economic outcomes.

People must have already attained higher stages before

modern, industrial societies can exist as already

accomplished forms. The construction and preparatory time

lasts a little. The time span between Enlightenment on the

one hand and modern society and industrial economy on the

other hand matches to the time span between stage

advancements and their clearly visible societal and

economic results. That is the reason why every nation that

experienced and contributed to the age of Enlightenment

also participated at the process of modernization and

industrialization during the early 19th century.

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Enlightenment consists of several elements

seemingly not linked to each other when seen from a

superficial vantage point. The authors belonging to the

movement criticised (1) magic and superstition and to a

certain extent church and religion, (2) the cruel

punishment law and (3) slavery, feudalism and

autocracy. They demanded a religion of reason (without

legends and myths), a humane punishment law and the

abolishment of serfdom in favour of liberty rights,

human rights, republic, constitutional state and

sometimes even democracy. Why did these authors

combine the criticism of superstition and magic with the

criticism of serfdom and body mutilation? Where is any

coherence between these phenomena? More, did nobody in

antiquity or medieval times criticise these phenomena?

Further, in case such criticism was expressed in former

times to a certain rate, why was then the age of

Enlightenment the first time in history where such criticism

became concise, penetrating and alarming?

It is a clear fact that antiquity and Middle Ages

strongly supported and demanded magic, superstition,

brutal punishment law, serfdom and autocracy. These

phenomena existed and penetrated premodern societies

because the people wanted them to exist. Therefore, they

weren’t criticised, or only by few and then on a scanty

basis only. The age of Enlightenment came into existence

because the Western humankind had attained a certain

psychological stage where it could no longer accept the

archaic phenomena and had stepped over a threshold where

it demanded higher developed structures in worldview,

customs, punishment law, ethics and politics.

Developmental psychology has evidenced that the

preoperational stage is the single cause and origin to the

belief in magic, witches, sorcerers, ghosts and monsters,

to the strong adherence to all kinds of superstition and to

the belief in mythical fantasies and incredulous legends.

Every child by his seventh year roughly shares this

magical-animistic and fairy tale worldview, no matter in

which culture and family it is raised, simply in

inevitable consequence of his or hers psychological

stage structures (Werner, 1948; Piaget, 1975; Stern,

1924; Bühler and Bilz, 1977; Rosengren, 2000;

Oesterdiekhoff, 2009a; 2011; 2013a).

The preoperational stage, characterizing the

psychological life of the greatest part of the premodern

humankind, is therefore the single cause to the same

forms of superstitions, mythological fantasies and

magical beliefs prevailing in the whole of ancient history

(Lévy-Bruhl, 1923; 1985; Oesterdiekhoff, 2009a; 2011;

2013a; 2012; 2016c; Piaget, 1975; Signer, 2004; Werner,

1948). The premodern humankind did not deeply

criticise magic and superstition because these structures

were the inevitable manifestation of its psychological

stage. As the European humankind - or their intellectual

elites - attained the first traces of the formal operational

stage, the age of Enlightenment started and the

intellectuals began to criticise the archaic beliefs and

practices mentioned. The age of Enlightenment, here the

criticism of magic and superstition, recognizably and

exclusively originated in the formal operational stage

and truly in nothing else.

The same is true with the other areas of

Enlightenment, the criticism of the brutal punishment

law, with the criticism of serfdom and the claims for

liberty rights and political reforms. Premodern peoples

wanted the brutal punishment law, as modern peoples

reject it. There was no cry for democracy and liberty

rights in medieval times because these peoples had not

developed those psychological stages that originate

democracy and liberty rights. As these two phenomena

will be scrutinized in the subsequent chapters, these hints

may be sufficient here.

Therefore, the structural-genetic theory programme

can explain the coherences between the three areas of

criticism (magic, mutilation and serfdom) mentioned and

between the age of Enlightenment on the one side and

the origin of sciences and modern, industrial society on

the other side. The origin of Enlightenment, sciences and

modern, industrial society all took place during the

same epoch and in the same world region. Two of

these phenomena are merely intellectual in nature and

these two intellectual phenomena precede the

institutional-economic phenomenon. That implies,

that the modern, industrial society originates in

intellectual structures and in nothing else.

Constitutional State and Democratic

Republic

The authors of Enlightenment, especially John

Locke, Charles de Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques

Rousseau, criticised forms of serfdom such as slavery

and feudalism in a way unknown in all intellectual

history beforehand. They showed the illegitimacy of

these institutions. More, they elaborated on which

principles liberty rights, republic and democracy should

be based and how republic and democracy could

function institutionally and practically. Thus, democracy

came into being as result of planning and thinking, not as

a non-intended phenomenon. Apart from the Greek

forerunner, lasting during a short time span only, it

happened for the first time in history that thinkers

completely rejected autocracy and described principles

and institutions of democracy. It is not by chance that the

claim for democracy and liberty rights was announced

more or less during the same period as Enlightenment,

sciences and industrial economy came into existence and

spread (Oesterdiekhoff, 2015; 2013a).

Historians and sociologists focus both institutional

and intellectual factors as possible explanatory factors to

the rise of the claim for liberty rights, republic,

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constitutional state and democracy. They sway whether

the ideas of Enlightenment or the struggle for power or

class conflicts be the causers to the rise of the Free

World. Following the ideas of Marx they often have

been tending to earmark power constellations, that is, the

loss of power of the feudal elites and the rise of the

bourgeoisie, as main cause to the breakdown of

monarchy and autocracy in favour for rising democracy

and republic (Moore, 1969).

However, constitutional state and democracy do not

represent shifting power constellations, that is, the

dominance of the bourgeoisie or the middle classes

because they represent the whole electorate, that is, the

whole nation. Democracy simply is not an instrument of

a certain class to exercise power, as the institutional

argumentation provides. That is the reason why the new

political ideas, in the discussions before 1789, were

supported especially by the noblemen, more than by the

other classes and were backed by members of all social

milieus. Noblemen belonged to the most enthusiastic

supporters of Enlightenment and the new political

consciousness. Though, the historians who emphasized

the decisive role of Enlightenment to the emergence of

the new political consciousness have likewise no theory

available how it is explainable that the whole premodern

humankind did not long for republic, constitutional state

and democracy, while only the Europeans stepwise and

gradually from the 18th century onwards developed this

new consciousness and these new institutions.

The developmental approach has the means available

to explain both the dominance of autocracy in the whole

premodern world and the recent rise of the Free World

(at first in the West). The preoperational stage does not

know tolerance, liberty rights and democracy but

emphasizes the role of authority and unchangeable laws.

Only the formal operational stage both surmounts and

rejects authoritarian forms and claims for democracy,

liberty rights, tolerance and the rule of law

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2015; 2014c).

Developmental psychology conducted experiments

among children to test their political consciousness.

Younger children understand rules, even game rules, as

eternal, unchangeable and set by parents, elderly, or god.

They believe that they have to obey to the eternal

customs. Adolescents, raised in modern societies,

surmount these beliefs and introduce democratic

procedures as those to decide over the legitimacy of rules

(Piaget, 1932). Correspondingly, younger children have

little tolerance with deviating opinions, emphasizing the

dominance of the group upon the individual, thus

tending to isolate or to expel deviants or individualists.

They prefer a collective mind; all members should share

the same opinions and stances (Gallatin and Adelson,

1970; Rosenberg, 1988).

Though children understand rules as holy and eternal

they are bad in knowing and applying them. Their

comparably scanty usage and incompetent praxis is not

present in their consciousness and reflectivity, of course.

Thus, they combine a holy ideology with a poor praxis,

relying on that what authorities, parents and elderly tell

them. Without their assistance, they would lead a rude

collective life as William Golding had described in

Lord of the flies. Conversely, modern adolescents both

believe in the democratic changeability of laws and

rules and are better in their understanding and

application. Thus, they combine a democratic

consciousness (of legislation) with a cultivated social

praxis (competent rule application) (Piaget, 1932).

Piagetian cross-cultural psychology applied these

tests both to children and adults of premodern societies.

It was found that premodern adults preserve the political

consciousness of children, that is, they maintain the

belief that rules and laws are unchangeable, are set by

ancestors and divinities and are not exposed to the will

of any people. In case they actually change any rules

then with the consciousness to restore them and not to

break the old and holy rules. Accordingly, cross-cultural

psychology can evidence that premodern peoples do not

develop democratic forms of political consciousness but are

in favour of authoritarianism (Havighurst and Neugarten,

1955: 125-142; Radding, 1985: 74-108; Oesterdiekhoff,

2009a: 261-284; 336-444; 2013a: 391-493).

Historians have described that medieval peoples

regard laws as holy and unchangeable, as superior to any

will of people and as set by god, kings and ancestors

(Kern, 1952; Radding, 1985). Premodern peoples all

over the world have regarded their customary laws just

this way, as Islamic peoples do conceive the Sharia by

now. Therefore, they are in favour of authoritarian forms

of government, strictly rejecting liberty rights and

democracy. Greater parts of Europeans even during the

19th and early 20th century still rejected democracy.

Democracy and constitutional state developed in Europe

stepwise throughout the 19th century, gaining an

overweight only after 1945 or even after 1975, when the

dictatorships on the Iberian peninsula collapsed. Surveys

have shown that greater parts or even majorities in the

developing nations reject democracy even by now. Often

electorates choose in free elections parties and leaders who

proclaim to abolish democracy after election, or who

announce that they want to continue their already existing

dictatorship. Thus, autocracies in developing nations exist

not really against the will of the people. There is no regime

that can prevail without legitimacy and support of the

nation. Therefore, autocracies are wished by the people.

The worldwide slow march to democracy over the past 100

years is nothing less than the reflection or manifestation of

the likewise slow worldwide psychological stage

development (Oesterdiekhoff, 2015; 2009a: 261-284;

336-444; 2013a: 391-493).

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As children do, premodern peoples combine a holy

law understanding with a scanty social and political

praxis. Corruption, clan criminality, mafia, high violence

rates, violence against women and children, duel culture,

bloodshed, etc., prevail in every kind of premodern

society. Premodern people do not lead a life in a secure

civil society where the citizens feel responsible for the

maintenance of rule. They do not live in a constitutional

state where liberty rights are preserved and where

freedom of press, freedom of confession and rights of

minorities are guaranteed. Political power is exercised by

private persons and public functions exist on a scanty

basis only. Accordingly, the social and political

conditions in the developing nations reveal comparably

greater forms of insecurity, violence, criminality and

lack or weakness of the rule of law. As democracy

develops only stepwise in the developing world, so does

constitutional state, civil society and socio-moral life

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2016d; 2017b; 2015).

Civil society and constitutional state are yet

preconditions to democracy. Only when people are

capable to maintain social order, care for society,

develop tolerance with different opinions and feel

responsible for state, law and nation are they able to

erect democracy and a free society. This improvement of

civil life, security and moral life has taken place in

modern societies over the past centuries in a clearly

measurable rate. Thus, the most advanced nations

combine a democratic mind with improved socio-moral

praxis, as the modern adolescents do, measured by the

Piagetian surveys. Thus, as long as humans stay on the

preoperational stage they have difficulties to carry civil

society and constitutional state. People on formal

operational stages, however, are able to improve

constitutional state, civil society and the socio-moral life

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2015; 2013a: 391-493).

The Humanitarian Revolution

The authors of Enlightenment criticised barbarian

social institutions and moral practices such as slavery,

feudalism, cruel punishment law, duel culture and

violence against women, children and animals. Piagetian

cross-cultural psychology conducted empirical surveys

concerning moral attitudes, finding that premodern

peoples do not surmount Kohlbergian moral stages one

and two, with only a few people reaching stage three.

Stages one and two refer to developmental ages of

children by their tenth year. Modern peoples yet

distribute on the stages three, four and five with four

as the modal stage. This confirms the fact that modern

peoples develop five to ten years more than

premodern ones (Kohlberg et al., 1978; 1980;

Edwards, 1975; Oesterdiekhoff, 2009a: 404-409;

2013a: 495-522; 2011: 162-175).

The lower socio-moral consciousness of the

premodern humankind induced the people to perform

and to accept cruel, insane and dismal social customs

such as slavery, duel culture and body mutilation in

punishment law. The authors of Enlightenment were the

first to attain the moral stages four and five, thus

attaining higher stages of empathy, perspective-taking,

responsibility, shame, guilt feelings and socio-moral life

altogether. From those sources whole modern nations

attained the modal stage four during the 20th century.

Modern people completely reject slavery, duels and brutal

punishment law. What happens when migrants staying on

the stages one and two have the opportunity to live out their

primitive mentality and their attitudes regarding women and

thankful response to hospitality could be seen at New

Year´s eve 2015 in Cologne (Oesterdiekhoff, 2016e). That

this incident is only the clearly visible iceberg of the

problems these people make show statistics concerning

their criminality, education, occupation, political attitudes

and religious commitment (Sarrazin, 2018).

The whole premodern humankind, including nature

peoples, ancient and medieval civilizations all around the

world, practised more or less the same forms of

punishment. Torture and body mutilation such as

crucifixion, burning, cutting to pieces, beheading or

spearing to death, or boiling in hot water in front of

bulks of folk were common punishments for theft,

treachery, forging or whatever. The European

enlightenment was the first movement in world history

to abolish these practices and to replace it by forms of

punishment that spared the human body. The

humanisation of punishment law followed the

psychological stage development of the Europeans

during the past centuries. The entire world copied more

or less the European reforms with some time distance in

consequence of likewise subsequent psychological

advancements (Pinker, 2011; Oesterdiekhoff, 2009a;

2011: 162-175; 2013a: 495-522; 2014c; 2016d; 2017b).

Accordingly, developmental psychology described that

small children do not only perform more physical violence

than older ones but also that young children strongly claim

and support severe punishments. Only children after their

10th year tend to support more appropriate and reasonable

punishments (Piaget, 1932; Stern, 1924).

Physical violence is omnipresent in premodern

societies. Violence against women, children and dogs or

cattle manifests extreme forms, in comparison with the

today´s most advanced nations. Bloodshed, vengeance

and duels were seen as holy duties, devastating whole

regions and affecting population growth. Empirical

surveys in present-day developing nations show that

these peoples support and perform much more than

people of the most advanced nations violence against

women and animals and accept much more physical

violence for reasons of honour or whatever. Accordingly,

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homicides are much more frequent in developing nations

and are among premodern societies yet more present than in

the todays developing nations. The currently most advanced

nations know only a small bit of that violence Europe had to

suffer in the 18th and 19th century. Violence has

continuously declined over centuries. Violence against

children for educational reasons were common in Europe

by 1965 roughly and declined afterwards considerably and

continuously. Europe in the first half of the 19th century

enacted the first laws against the maltreatment of animals.

Protection of wildlife and cattle, unknown in developing

nations around the middle of the 20th century or partially

even by now, has got some strength over the past decades

(Pinker, 2011; Oesterdiekhoff, 2011: 162-175; 2013a: 495-

522; 2016d; 2017b).

The Arena games of the Roman Empire are the best

examples of the lower socio-moral stage of the whole

premodern humankind. They consisted of mortal duels

(gladiator fights), capital punishment of great numbers of

delinquents and animals who fought against each other

or against humans. These three elements existed

throughout the whole premodern world, including

Europe by the age of Enlightenment. The games

belonged to the greatest amusements the Romans had

and weren’t truly criticized or rejected. They simply

existed because the people wanted them to and enjoyed

them. They don´t exist anymore, neither in its compact-

Roman-form nor as single elements, because modern

peoples could neither enjoy nor sustain them. Divergent

psychological stages are the sole cause to their former

existence and their present-day disappearance

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2009b; 2011: 173-175; 2013a: 519-522).

Accordingly, premodern peoples have no problems

with slavery and related forms of dependency and

serfdom. Slavery was common among nature peoples

such as the native Americans from south and north,

among nature peoples in Polynesia and Africa and

among every Asian civilisation by the 19th century at

least. Slavery usually implied the full right upon life and

death of the slave, including sexual usage and killing for

any reasons without any legal hindrances to that. It is

obvious that slavery was only possible because

premodern peoples stood on preoperational stages and

did not surmount moral stages one and two. Only people

with low levels of socio-moral consciousness are ready

to perform and to accept slavery. Europe, China, and

Japan are said to have abolished slavery during the early

modern times. Authors of Enlightenment had prepared

the movement, the French Revolution of 1789 freed the

slaves in the colonies, the British navy prohibited

Atlantic slave trade since the 1830ies, the Europeans

stopped the Arabian slave states at that time and by 1850

all European nations had forbidden any form of slavery

forever (Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a: 395-397; 2017b).

Explosion in Painting

Ancient Egyptian painting manifests another style as

ancient or medieval Chinese or Indian painting. Yet,

ancient or medieval Mediterranean and ancient or

medieval Oriental painting exhibit common features

underlying their different styles. These common features

were only surmounted by the European painting starting

during Renaissance and further European advancements

unfolding in the early modern era.

Some historians of art, especially before 1940 but

also in recent times, have described similarities between

children’s drawings and the pre-Renaissance painting in

its worldwide dimensions (Gablik, 1976; Schäfer, 1986;

Oesterdiekhoff, forthcoming a). Preoperational spatial

understanding is the cause to these common features.

The preoperational space understanding only knows

topological relations, while the concrete operational

space understanding manifests Euclidean and projective

space relations, coming into existence in the history of

painting only during the European Renaissance. It was

found that the worldwide pre-Renaissance painting

corresponds to the third stage of children´s drawings -

the intellectual stage - according to Luquet (1927), while

the fourth stage - the visual stage-corresponds to the

Renaissance painting and the subsequent European arts.

Modern children reach the concrete operational space

understanding and the visual stage with 9 years roughly.

The common features of the pre-Renaissance art,

originating in the topological or preoperational stage, are

definable the following way. The painters show no space

but locales only. The pictures are two-dimensionally

only, incapable of presenting three-dimensional depth.

Objects are presented flat and not bodily, missing any

foreshortenings, oblique views and diminutions.

Measurements, distances and proportions are not

seriously considered. Emotionally important objects are

painted bigger than secondary phenomena. Perspectives

are missing. Far-distant and nearby objects are painted

with the same sizes. The painters paint against their

knowledge of the objects (intellectual realism) and not

against what is given to the eyes (visual realism). That is,

their paintings do not come close to photos and are bad

in coping reality. They paint objects schematically.

There was no ancient or medieval painter who was able

to paint a human body (or whatever) as it looks like in

reality. For example, ancient Egyptians, over 3.000

years, always paint humans this flat or non-bodily way:

Breast, shoulders and eyes were painted in front view,

while the face, the hip, the buttocks, the legs and the feet

in profile. The painters paint alike that what is viewable

and that what is not viewable but belongs to the object

anyway, a phenomenon called x-ray painting. Ancient

and medieval painters never paint light and shadows. “I

have happened on no evidence to show that any [ancient]

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Greek ever sat down and drew a view, or a group of

figures, or a congeries of objects, such as his tables and

chairs, as they appeared relatively to each other in their

respective shapes, sizes and positions, as seen from a

single point of view.” (Ivins, 1964: 31)

Painting experienced an unheard breakthrough during

Renaissance and subsequent centuries, a breakthrough

limited to European culture by 1900 roughly. The

invention of the central perspective with its

foreshortenings, diminutions and oblique views is only

one element of this revolution. Piaget has shown in two

ample volumes that the central perspective comes into

existence as consequence of the concrete operations, that

is, as consequence of the replacement of the topological

by the Euclidean and projective spaces. People on the

concrete operational stage discover the space in painting

and are able to consider depth, proportions and distances.

They have the preconditions to paint persons and objects

voluminously and bodily. They avoid all the failures of

intellectual realism in favour for visual realism. As they

paint realities as they paint light, colour shades and

shadows for the first time in history. European painters

cared for the reproduction of every single detail ancient

and Oriental painters simply overlooked. European

artists learned to come close with their paintings to

photos and full reality (Gablik, 1976; Schäfer, 1986;

Oesterdiekhoff et al., 2019).

There was not one pre-Renaissance painter in the

whole world being able to paint a picture of the quality

Das große Rasenstück of Dürer (1502) manifests. There

was not one ancient, medieval or Oriental painter who

was enabled to paint a portrait of the perfection Pieter

van den Broecke by Franz Hals (1633) or Pope Paul III.

by Tizian (1546) exhibit. Not one pre-Renaissance artist

could have reached the excellence Albert Anker attained

with Children at breakfast in 1879. Not by chance is

Leonardo´s Mona Lisa the most famous picture today.

Altogether, psychological stage development has carried

the whole history of painting. Not conventions or styles but

psychological maturation built the main trajectory in the

history of arts. European culture from the Renaissance

onwards by 1900 or 1950 attained higher stages in painting

unparalleled in the whole history that apparently reflect

psychological stage advancements.

Literature

Narration historically starts with creation and telling

of myths. From the Stone Ages to the end of the

premodern world the myth was the most used form of

narration all over the world. The myth is the single form

of narration among illiterate nature peoples, the most

frequent form of narration among the illiterate people in

the famous Eurasian agrarian civilizations by the 19th

century and attracted greatest interest among noblemen

in the palaces of India, Ottoman Empire, Persia and

China still during the early modern times. The myth is

the origin of literature and religious legends and the

precursor of philosophy and science.

Premodern people commonly do not discriminate

myths from reportages or records. They usually do not

regard myths as simply fictional but believe they tell true

incidents. They use myths for explaining nature and

reality, different from that what modern fictional

literature does. Against modern understandings, myths

commonly describe physical impossibilities and

incredulous events. Ancient people yet thought

otherwise. Myriads of mythologists worked out that

initially there weren’t any divergences between myths

for children and those for adults. Only in more recent

times, some divergences have occurred. Myths, today

told to children only, once entertained the whole family

and village community. Children and archaic adults

create the same myths and have the same attitude to

them (Wundt, 1914: 33-37; Bühler and Bilz, 1977;

Rosengren, 2000; Stern, 1924; Oesterdiekhoff, 2016f).

Epic, tragedy, comedy and drama manifest more

elaborated forms of narration. The classic antiquity

created these forms of narration that vanished again after

the collapse of the Roman Empire. According to LePan,

only during the 1590ies, with Marlowe and Shakespeare,

narration reached again the level the classic authors had

already attained 1.300 or 2.000 years ago. LePan (1989)

dedicated a whole monograph to interpret the English

literary history in terms of developmental psychology.

He described that the medieval English (European)

literature only knew simple plots manifesting features

typical for children. “Thus almost all works of

literature in primitive societies are plotted in single

sequences rather than dobble-plotted´ with two or

more related threads of story inter-woven.” (LePan,

1989: 178) The simple plot did not well describe

motives if at all, did not characterize psychological

features, did not combine cause and effect and therefore

did not arouse expectations. The audience focused single

incidents as do children today when watching TV

(Oesterdiekhoff and Rindermann, forthcoming).

The complex plot, coming into existence with

Shakespeare in England, already manifests those features all

kinds of drama have since. LePan shows that psychological

stage advancements must have taken place both in authors

and audience to make this explosion in literary possible.

However, a new kind of literature appeared that

exerted more influence than the drama had done. Though

a handful or a dozen of novels had been already written

in antiquity, the novel started to disseminate from the

16th century onwards. El criticón, Simplicissimus

Teutsch, Eulenspiegel and Don Quichote belonged to the

first true novels in modern literary history. The next step

was given by the developmental novel, exemplified by

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Robinson Crusoe, The history of Tom Jones and

Geschichte des Fräulein von Sternheim. The European

novel exploded during the 19th century and later on with

Austen, Dickens, Dostojewski, Tolstoi, Mann, Proust,

etc., shaping the consciousness and education of whole

nations. More than any other form of narration the novel

is capable to tell complex stories and to reflect the full

density and complexity of real life. More than any other

form the novel can dive into psychological structures and

social conditions. The persons described have greater

roundness and depth and the ideas outlined are more

profound. The novel alone can show the full reality

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a: 346-349, Oesterdiekhoff and

Rindermann, forthcoming).

On the whole, literary history manifests the same

process of psychological maturation as painting does.

From myth over drama and tragedy to novel there is

recognizable a clear tendency to greater complexity and

mental depth. The breakthrough of literature took place

during the same period as modern society came into

being. Modern literature has been part and manifestation

of the European miracle over some centuries. Of course,

nowadays, both modern society and literary excellence

have more or less disseminated worldwide.

Music

To my knowledge, the history of music is not written

in terms of psychological stages by now. Thus, there is

some difference to the history of painting and literature

concerning scientific endeavours related. However,

presumably all elements needed to that task have been

available for long. Multi-voiced music is central to the

development of Western music. It originated in the link

of notation and composition. The great breakthrough in

the entire music history of the world came with the 12

steps tone system around 1700. It enabled to compose in

all kinds of major and minor. Johann Sebastian Bach is

the main protagonist of this greatest revolution in music

history. Composers like Georg Friedrich Händel, Ludwig

van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Joseph Haydn,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn-

Bartholdy, Giuseppi Verdi, Richard Wagner, Fryderik

Chopin, Clara and Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms,

Claude Debussy, Pjotr Tschaikowsky and others created

the great compositions of classic music.

This greatest revolution in the music history of the

world took mainly place from 1700 to 1900 in Europe,

during the same time as the novel conquered literature

and the painting fully matched reality, as the Western

world went through the greatest transformation in world

history and as the Europeans subsequently attained the

formal operational stage and reached psychological

developmental ages unparalleled in history. The great

concert halls in Tokio, Moscow, Sydney, New York,

Singapore, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur or Hamburg

almost always only perform these classic composers

mentioned. They do not play European composers of the

15th century or Asian composers of premodern times for

obvious reasons. Premodern music from whichever

world region or from whichever styles simply cannot

match classic music.

It is clear that psychological stage advancement is the

cause to this explosion of composition. Psychological

stage development likewise caused the breakthroughs in

music, literature and painting having taken place in

Europe during the past centuries. The structural-genetic

theory programme is the fundamental theory to the

history of the fine arts and has found the key to explain

their main trajectories.

Modern society and corresponding psychological

stages might have been the prerequisites to subsequent

music revolutions. The diverse forms of Pop music after

1960 and Latin music may be part of this process. Both

reveal an explosion of talent and excellent compositions

with thousands of earwigs that probably have no

matching parallels in the various forms of premodern

music (Oesterdiekhoff, 2013a: 357-361).

European Expansion

Sea voyages across oceans and intercontinental

traffic exist since prehistory. There is abundant and clear

evidence that copper and tin was exported from both

Americas to the Mediterranean since the early Bronze

Age over several thousand years on a more or less

regular basis. People from Asia and Europe met in

America and Africa. China, India, Europe and the

Mediterranean were connected to the mines of Africa

some thousands of years ago. The cultures of the world

were much more interconnected to each other and

influenced more each other than school books usually

reveal as research has shown over the past generations

(Bailey, 1994; Fell, 1977; Thompson, 1992).

However, the more recent European expansion yet

soon exceeded the ancient intercontinental contacts. The

Portuguese and the Spaniards conquered Latin America

and imprinted influences existing and dominating by

now, concerning not only language and religion. They

connected Latin America to the since then never broken

again chain of global developments, enabling Latin

America to participate at the transformation to modern,

industrial society. Of course, as the 16th century Iberians

had been more brutal than the 19th century Europeans

their colonisation had much more dismal aspects than the

19th century colonisation and imperialism. People of

many European nations occupied North America later

on, also leading the Amerindians close to distinction and

transforming that region to the top of the industrial

world. On the whole, North and South America became

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the greatest colony for the Europeans to settle. Initially

the double continent was a European satellite, later on it

became independent. The double continent and Europe

form the kernel of the Western world by now.

Great Britain became the greatest imperialistic power

in world history, ruling roughly a quarter of the world´s

surface around 1914. There weren’t many nations in the

world this aggressive military state did not invade or led

a war with. Apart of America, British colonizers

conquered South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

More, the Britons ruled whole India by 1947 and greater

parts of Africa by 1960. Further, the Europeans ruled

Africa, Polynesia and South East Asia by 1945 or by

1960, respectively (Ferguson, 2011; Chaudhuri, 1978).

The geography of Russia is a sometimes overlooked

part of the European expansion. The origins both of

Russia and Ukraine are European in nature. The first

Russian city, Novgorod, belonging to the Hanse

association, was founded by Germanic Vikings, as

northerners built the origin of Ukraine. The Kremlin,

partially built by Italian architects, symbolizes the

European influences, strengthened by Peter the Great

who learned in the Netherlands and built the maritime

door to Europe, St. Petersburg. Russia participated at the

transformations of Europe to a certain extent during the

early modern times. Of course, she was not a forerunner

but more a copying backbencher with dubious successes.

Though, its vast expansion between 1500 and 1900 has

to be explained against the background of this

participation. It is possible to compare the conquest of

North Asia by the Russians with the conquest of

Australia and both Americas by the Europeans. As the

Russians imprinted modern civilization to North Asia, as

the Europeans did concerning both Americas.

Thus, Europeans between 1500 and 1900 occupied

and colonized both Americas, North Asia, Greenland,

Australia and New Zealand. By now these parts of the

world have remained European settlements and nations,

amounting more than half of the globe´s surface. The

decolonization after 1960 in the South did not abolish

these occupations mentioned.

The Europeans discovered any small region in the

world and contacted almost all cultures existing in the

period. They described any small people in the world at

length and analyzed their customs, religion, mind and

their way of life altogether. They methodically

scrutinized the botany and fauna, the geology and

geography of the regions they travelled through. Thousands

over thousands of ethnographic descriptions related are

stored in libraries - an achievement unheard in all history.

Europeans made dictionaries of thousands of languages and

researched their features. No other civilization has ever

accomplished comparable achievements.

The moral and political problems of the era of

colonialism and imperialism have been widely discussed.

Exploitation, alienation, incapacitation and destruction of

cultures belong to the many sins Europeans committed at

that time. However, this era imported the modern,

industrial society to the non-Western world. Nothing

could be more wrong than the statement of Chancellor

Merkel, Europe had blockaded Africa´s development for

over 400 years. Conversely, Europe delivered all the

mental, informational, cultural, technological,

educational, scientific, medical and economic

impulses to the non-Western world that were needed

to copy the Western process of modernization and

industrialization. Only this way became the modern,

industrial society more or less dominant right across

the whole globe (Oesterdiekhoff, 2005).

The globalization process does not only concern

economic and institutional aspects but also

psychological structures. Greatest parts of the

preoperational mind and worldview (Lévy-Bruhl,

1923; 1985), dominating the non-Western world a few

generations ago, have largely disappeared now.

Psychological stage advancements have taken place

more or less on a global scale. Of course, there are

still developmental gaps between peoples of the most

advanced nations and those of the developing world.

Though, the gaps are closing. Yesterday´s

backbencher can be the frontrunner of tomorrow. Just

this shift of powers and capabilities is already

happening right now (Oesterdiekhoff, 2016d; Frank and

Gills, 1993; Landes, 1998; Maddison, 2001).

Obviously, psychological stage advancements in the

Europeans are connected to their cultural advantages that

made their expansion possible. It helps to explain how

some thousand Britons could rule India, or how small

groups could crash the Aztec and Inca civilisation. It

helps to explain how the intentions to explore and to

discover arose and how the contacts between the foreign

invaders and the local residents developed in favour for

the first group. Todorow once wrote that it was their

literacy that enabled the Europeans to smash the

Amerindians in North America. Yet literacy was only a

small part of the cultural inequalities but deeply

connected to stage differences as Piagetian psychology

had described at length (Luria, 1982; Mogdil and

Mogdil, 1976). Piagetian psychology is also requested

regarding the explanation to the stage differences

between former and present-day Westerners, that is, why

former Europeans often tended to maltreat the peoples

they encountered and why they now disapprove their

antecedents, of course, often with wrong argumentation

(consider Merkel´s statement). Piagetian psychology is

also helpful to discriminate between those who are able

to discuss the achievements and failures of the

colonization properly on the one side and those who

have only some moral sentiments but neither knowledge

nor judgment about that on the other side.

Georg Oesterdiekhoff et al. / Journal of Social Sciences 2020, Volume 16: 84.99

DOI: 10.3844/jssp.2020.84.99

Conclusion

The European miracle must be discriminated from

former breakthroughs somewhat. Never before was a

transformation thus penetrating and ground-breaking,

including the Neolithic revolution and the rise of state

and civilization. Not one transformation before had

aroused such tremendous effects. More, never before

whole nations had attained the formal operational stage.

In ancient times only some small elites might have

touched this stage. Modern nations are yet separated

from the whole premodern humankind by 5, 10 and even

more developmental years. Therefore, the emergence of

the modern, industrial society is a radically new

phenomenon. Even huge transformations in former times

happened all within the preoperational or concrete

operational stage. Advancements in China around 1300

or in India around 200, in Rome around Caesar´s time or

in Arabia around 1000 - they all happened within the

lower psychological stages.

Of course, the European miracle is somehow history

because now all nations are on the stage or at its edge at

least. China, India, Indonesia or Brazil are on the jump,

in 100 years perhaps three billions of Africans will look

on perhaps 500 millions of Europeans. More, even the

European miracle once resulted from global influences.

Further, almost every world region was once frontrunner,

while others, later great, were at times backbenchers. The

worldwide influences have dominated and steered every

nation more or less to similar directions, mostly balancing

momentary inequalities quickly. Advantages given to one

culture were thus mostly only of momentary character.

However, when Arabia was frontrunner around 1000 A. C.

and Greece around 400 B. C. - they were so in a different

way from the European preponderance after 1700. Neither

was their advancement related to the backbenchers so big as

was the gap between Europe and the non-Western world

around 1900, nor did the then given gap implied such huge

psychological stage differences.

Modern, industrial society consists of transformations

in sciences, industrial economy, political structures (such

as democracy, civil society and constitutional state),

Enlightenment (such as disenchantment and claim for

liberty rights), humanitarian revolution (such as diligent

childcare, animal protection, abolishment of slavery,

serfdom and brutal punishment law and decline of

violence and criminality) and revolutions in music,

painting and literature. Every single transformation

simply manifests psychological stage advancements.

More exactly, every kind of modernization, every

transformation of a certain dimension of culture during

modernization, is either a manifestation of psychological

stage development or a side effect of this. Whenever a

nation attains the formal operational stage it cannot

avoid developing stepwise modern society. Small

milieus with people on the formal operational stage

cannot alone create modern society (Hellenistic science

revolution as example to this). When greater parts yet

join the transformation then the emergence of modern,

industrial society becomes inevitable (Oesterdiekhoff,

2007; 2014a; 2014b; 2014d; 2014e).

Conversely, whenever people stay on preoperational

stages then they do not develop sciences, industrial

economy, democracy, constitutional state, humanitarian

revolution, visual realism in painting, classic music and

great literature à la Proust or Mann. Preoperational

peoples know or manifest magic, superstitious religion

(ancestor worship and nature religion), simple

technologies, hunting, fishing, farming, craftsmanship,

trading, autocracy, slavery and the fine arts in their

archaic forms (Oesterdiekhoff, 2011; 2013a; 2016a;

2016b; Lévy-Bruhl, 1923; 1985).

The structural-genetic theory programme collapses

classical and current sociology and economy with their

belief in institutions, social conditions, materialistic

circumstances and capital. It rather shows that presumed

objective and materialistic phenomena are mainly results

and consequences of psychological stage developments

(Oesterdiekhoff, 2016b; 2018). The structural-genetic

theory programme is the first theory that succeeds in

revealing the true foundations of the history of language,

sciences, economy, law, politics, morals, religion and

fine arts. These foundations are psychological stage

structures. Premodern cultural manifestations originate

in preoperational stages and modern manifestations of

culture root in the formal operational stage. The

discovery of the childlike nature of premodern humans

and of the stage advancements of modern humans, is the

greatest discovery ever made in the human and social

sciences (Oesterdiekhoff, 2016a; 2016c).

On the whole, the structural-genetic theory

programme has found the key both to understand the

origin and the nature of modern, industrial society. The

new theory is superior to the classic approaches of

Durkheim, Weber, Parsons and Elias and has much more

explanatory power and empirical evidence than current

approaches contributed by Jones (1987), Ferguson

(2011), Macfarlane (2000), Landes (1998), Pomeranz

(2001), Sanderson (1999) and Wallerstein (1974).

Author’s Contributions

Jörn Rüsen: Helped in developing ideas and

conceptions, wrote the last chapter and read the paper.

Hans-Jürgen Hummell: Helped in developing the

conception, discussed the problems and read the article

for corrections.

Georg Oesterdiekhoff: Wrote the first parts of the

article, developed the research idea, and read the article

for corrections.

Georg Oesterdiekhoff et al. / Journal of Social Sciences 2020, Volume 16: 84.99

DOI: 10.3844/jssp.2020.84.99

Ethics

The authors confirm that the content does not violate

any dignity of certain ethnic groups or minorities.

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Non-Linearity of Intelligence Effects and the Threshold Model of Formal-Operative Intelligence

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021
MANKIND QUART

Ronald Henss

There is ample evidence that numerous effects of intelligence are non-linear. Nevertheless, psychometric research is almost exclusively restricted to the linear approach. The article presents a non-linear model, dubbed threshold model of formal-operative intelligence. The model is based on Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Using Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index as an example, it is shown that countries are only able to curb corruption if their national intelligence exceeds a certain threshold. In the lower intelligence range it does not matter whether a country is very far below or directly on the threshold. Intelligence only comes into play when the threshold is exceeded. In the context of Piaget’s developmental psychology this means: The decisive question is whether a sufficiently large proportion of the population has reached the stage of formal-operative thinking. It is shown that the threshold model has far greater explanatory power than the linear approach, and that this applies to a broad range of quite diverse variables. The importance of intelligence is much greater than many believe.

Nicht-lineare Effekte der Intelligenz und das Schwellenmodell der formal-operativen Intelligenz

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

Ronald Henss

Es gibt zahlreiche Belege dafür, dass die Auswirkungen der Intelligenz in unterschiedlichen Bereichen nicht-linear sind. Dennoch ist die psychometrische Intelligenzforschung fast ausschließlich auf den linearen Ansatz beschränkt. Dieser Artikel stellt ein nicht-lineares Modell vor, das als Schwellenmodell der formal-operativen Intelligenz bezeichnet wird. Das Modell basiert auf Jean Piagets Stufen der menschlichen Entwicklung. Am Beispiel des Korruptionswahrnehmungs-Index von Transparency International wird gezeigt, dass Länder nur dann in der Lage sind, Korruption einzudämmen, wenn ihre nationale Intelligenz eine bestimmte Schwelle überschreitet. Im unteren Intelligenzbereich spielt es keine Rolle, ob ein Land sehr weit unter oder direkt an der Schwelle liegt. Intelligenz entfaltet erst dann ihre Wirkung, wenn die Schwelle überschritten wird. Im Kontext der Entwicklungspsychologie von Piaget bedeutet dies: Entscheidend ist, ob ein ausreichend großer Teil der Bevölkerung das Stadium des formal-operativen Denkens erreicht hat. Es wird gezeigt, dass das Schwellen-modell eine weitaus größere Erklärungskraft hat als der lineare Ansatz. Dies gilt für eine breite Palette von ganz unterschiedlichen Variablen. Die Bedeutung der Intelligenz ist viel größer, als viele glauben. ____________ Dieser Artikel ist eine Übersetzung von Henss, R. (2021). Non-linearity of intelligence effects and the Threshold Model of formal-operative Intelligence. Mankind Quarterly, 61, 854-871. Blog zum Schwellenmodell der formal-operativen Intelligenz: thresholdmodel.wordpress.com

The Growth of Awareness and Introspection in History. Mystical Interpretations of Mental Activities and of Social or Physical Incidents

Article

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Civilization Theory and Structural-genetic Theory Programme

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INTEGR PSYCHOL BEHAV

Georg Oesterdiekhoff

The Civilization theory of N. Elias combines the scrutiny of psychogenetic and sociogenetic developments shaping history from ancient to modern times. Both forms of developments are seen by him as deeply interconnected to each other, being to each other cause and consequence alike. Medieval respectively premodern societies harbor people staying more close to childlike levels, while modern societies force humans to attain more elaborated psychological stages. Otherwise modern societies couldn´t function. It is shown that Elias has problems to evidence his psychogenetic assumptions. Civilization theory can be improved by the application of learned developmental psychology, by using theories and data coming from Piagetian cross-cultural psychology. It is not only possible to improve the insights into psychogenetic data hereby but also to illuminate much better central phenomena of modern society. Piagetian data enable to refer crucial phenomena of modern society – sciences, industrial economy, democracy, constitutional state, humanitarian revolution, traits of the fine arts – to psychogenetic advancements much better than Elias had done.

Culture and Cognition : Readings in Cross-Cultural Psychology (1974). Republished 2019

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Jan 1974

One of the first cross-cultural psychology books dealing specifically with culture and cognition. The collection of articles dating from 1974 reflects the research field of the time, but the fact that it has been republished as vol 2 in the series “Psychology Library Editions: Personality” by Routledge/Taylor & Francis shows that it can still be of interest.

The Rise of the Physical Sciences in “Stricto Sensu” The Developmental Approach and the History of Sciences

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2017

Georg Oesterdiekhoff

Theorie des Mythos

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2016
ANTHROPOS

Georg Oesterdiekhoff

Religion, literature, philosophy, and sciences have originated from myths. A scientific theory of the myth is thus decisive to the comprehension of the history of mind and culture. Since its beginning, the related research sways between relativistic and developmental approaches. Many authors have used developmental approaches in order to understand the production and reception of myths. This essay shows that only a developmental approach has the capacity to understand the true nature of the myth and mythical thinking. The consequences of these considerations go far beyond mythology and address basic questions of the history of human culture,.

Art and Geometry: A Study in Space Intuitions

Book