Symbolic thinking: what it is, characteristics and types

What is symbolic thinking and how has it developed throughout history?

Most living beings are designed to react to what happens to them in the present, so that their survival requires a perceptual process that is oriented towards the immediate.

Learning, the result of direct experience and the years of evolution of each species (phylogeny), is responsible for forging this capacity, which is necessary for the continuity of the individual and his group.

The human being, however, has the ability to abstract objective reality and to give it a meaning of his own, through the mechanism of symbolization. Through this we create, imagine and communicate with each other; while exploring what is hidden behind the curtain of appearances.

In this article we will talk about human symbolic thinkingThe first is that it has been recently appreciated an important controversy with respect to the possibility that other species can have it.

What is symbolic thinking

The symbolic thought is the capacity of a living being to think beyond the situation in which it is present, generating with it mental contents.thus generating abstract mental contents on which it projects its capacity of representation. In humans it has been described that, under normative developmental conditions, this ability begins at 18 months of age (coinciding with Jean Piaget's pre-operational phase).

According to Piaget, at this stage (between the ages of two and seven) the child begins to understand the role of others and his own, to create symbols in order to represent tangible objects and to trace the relationships that may exist between them.

However, the logical foundation for creating cause and effect patterns at a non-immediate level would still be lacking, so his brain will have to continue to mature until the next stage to do so (formal operations).

Through symbolic thinking we can talk about what happened in the past or what we hypothesize will happen in the future, evoking memories and elaborating on them.evoking memories and hypothesizing respectively. Thus, we are able to move beyond what the senses capture, revealing a universe whose fabric is embroidered by the intangible.

Symbolic thought in the human being

We will now proceed to detail some of the expressions of symbolic thought, which are necessary to understand the human being as a whole. Language, culture, play, drawing (or painting) and mathematics will be considered.

1. Written and oral expression: language

The use of words is a basic example of symbolization.The use of words is a basic example of symbolization, since the verbal clues with which we describe reality are not at all what they point to, but rather their translation into abstract and consensual terms. Thus, when we read a book, we mentally access the scenarios described in its pages, but although we have the capacity to clearly imagine each of its passages, at no time are we physically present in them.

In addition to reading, symbolic thought participates in a decisive way in writing. Every universe that takes shape on paper has been, in the first place, created in the mind of the person who stops it with his hand.

Through the written word and the use of letters, which symbolically represent the sounds of speech (and these in turn the real objects to which they refer), a process of abstraction is configured for which this type of thinking is required. The meaning of letters and sounds is arbitrary, and is only given by social consensus..

The above is applicable to the understanding of objects, but through language it is also possible to symbolize attributes or other intangible aspects, such as justice or goodness (which have an evident cultural component). In this sense, fables describe stories that contain learning about issues relevant to life according to the historical moment (moralizing purpose), and are part of traditions that are transmitted in an intergenerational way.

2. Culture and society

The culture to which an individual belongs is based on the human being's capacity for symbolization. It is estimated that the cognitive revolution, from which we were able to build a knowledge that did not depend on the immediate, happened at some point in the past (between 30,000 and 70,000 years ago). The earliest known representation is an ivory carving with a human body and a lion's head found in Stadel (Germany), which is considered as pioneering evidence of our ability to imagine (and create) something non-existent.

When human groups were small, with tribes of only a few tens of individuals, it was easy to have knowledge about those who were part of them and their corresponding relationships. The ability of human beings to think abstractly allowed social networks to expand, creating large communities that would require novel methods of subsistence (such as livestock and agriculture).This led to the creation of large communities that would require novel methods of subsistence (such as livestock and agriculture).

It is not known exactly how this could have happened, but the hypothesis of a genetic mutation in homo sapiens is postulated, which led to a cortical development (neocortex) of sufficient magnitude for the formation of abstract thoughts and concepts that allowed life in community. In order to unite bonds between such a large number of subjects sharing a common space, stories and laws were elaborated about abstract realities that gave a greater sense of belonging. And from this, the great cities of today.

The culture is subject to a series of norms and traditions that are learned without the need for direct experience with them. To this end, we resort to popular wisdom, the legal framework, myths and stereotypes, which are the cause of certain groups having more rights and/or duties (due to lineage or other non-objectifiable achievements). All of them are products of symbolic thinking, and evident examples of how this can condition the destiny of human beings.

3. Symbolic play

Symbolic play is very important for the development of the first social relations, and an unavoidable opportunity for the development of the first social relations.It is an unavoidable opportunity to practice the customs and habits of the society in which we live. That is why children frequently resort to such ludic activities, in which they reproduce the roles of the adults with whom they coexist on a daily basis. This is one of the mechanisms through which society maintains its symbols, and even toys are designed for this purpose.

In symbolic play, the child represents occupations or pretends to be all kinds of characters, often requiring the participation of at least two children. Properties are also attributed to inanimate objects (a box can become a cell phone, for example), which requires cognitive resources such as analogy (equating two different objects through their shared properties, such as their shape or size) and abstraction.

This form of play involves training symbolic thinking, which is located especially in the frontal lobe, and allows the development of social skills necessary to interact successfully with the environment.

4. Drawing and painting

In Borneo (Indonesia) is located the oldest sample of cave painting known today, dating back to 38,000 BC. Although they are generally human handprints printed on the walls, there are also everyday hunting scenes and certain symbols whose meaning is unknown. These findings, beyond their undeniable relevance as artistic pieces, contribute to infer at what point in history we began to think through abstractions.

And the fact is that drawing is a graphic representation of realities that, very often, are not present at the moment of being captured. Drawing or color served for different societies to transmit a seal of identity and to leave a record of what their distinctive characteristics were, extending their legacy far beyond their physical survival (which often ended after periods of great famine, extermination or pandemic diseases). A very recent example can be found in flags.

In today's times, drawing is still used to represent ideas represent ideas located only in the mind of the person who executes them.. An architect, for example, makes use of his knowledge of physics and design to transfer to paper the idea he has had about a new building or other type of structure. And since this has never been built before (it is not a mere reproduction), it is a symbolic and abstract exercise that requires higher cognitive processes.

The same can be said of modern works of art, many of which do not reflect reality, but symbolic abstractions of it.

5. Mathematics

Mathematics is a universal language. Although in its elementary forms it refers to a simple matter of degree or proportion, a deep understanding of it requires an enormous level of abstraction (through which to understand the tacit relationships observed in nature). That is why mathematics is present in many of the sciences, such as physics or computer science..

Some mathematical operations cannot even be inferred from experience with reality. This is common in theoretical physics, which depends on the integration of knowledge about formulas and theories in order to deduce hypotheses about how the universe works, without having the opportunity to observe them with our own eyes. Through it we go deeper, from symbolization, where the naked senses do not reach.