There is a concept in psychology that is an integral part of children's perception and thinking - this is syncretism. Everyone knows that a child is born like a blank sheet of paper, his sensations and perceptions have no experience, memory, thinking and imagination are not yet developed. But the development of the baby’s psyche will rapidly be enriched with new skills and experience. The physiological and psychological development of a child are closely related; this should be taken into account when considering such a concept as syncretism.
In this article:
What is syncretismSigns of syncretismThe main feature of syncretismIntellectual development and syncretismEgocentrism and syncretism
What is syncretism
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Syncretism is a mental function of a child’s thinking, which appears in a generalized connection of objects and objects without common signs and grounds. Surely parents could observe how their child thought about this or that question, and his judgments were based only on the knowledge that he possessed due to his age.
In fact, at an early age, namely in preschool and primary school age, the child is not yet subject to some mental operations, and he uses what has already been mastered. Syncretism manifests itself as a certain intermediate moment in the process of formation and development of intelligence.
Religious syncretism
The practice of syncretism is quite common in most modern religions and religions of the past. For example, Jewish ideas played a significant role in the formation of Christianity. In addition, Christianity now has many details that were not characteristic of early Christianity.
For example: Christmas with a tree and gifts is an ancient pagan ritual. It was introduced into Christianity to facilitate conversion from old religions to the new. The same thing happened with Easter eggs - they were part of Greek and Roman pagan traditions.
If you examine several religious movements, you can find syncretism in almost any modern religion.
See also the meanings of Eclecticism, Culture, Religion and Art.
Signs of syncretism
The main characteristics and signs of syncretism in a child’s thinking are as follows:
- A child's judgment about an object comes down to its external perception.
The resulting impression relates to the connections of this object and acts as its characteristics.
- The mental functions of a child act inseparably.
A child's inference involves perception, impression, and memory in one inextricable pattern. For a more clear example, it is worth recalling the experiment that psychologists conducted on the topic of syncretism.
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Children were asked to look at a model of nature with a memorable landscape, after which they were asked to choose an image of this landscape from several photographs that would fully correspond to the view opening in front of them. But when he was asked to find a photo of nature that another child who was sitting opposite him had seen, he definitely chose “his” photo.
- Inability to reason logically, which is based on true knowledge.
This characteristic confirms that in mental operations the child still relies on an external impression of a situation or object, since he is not able to link all actual connections into one scheme.
One way or another, syncretism is an integral part in the intellectual development of a child, and this mental function undergoes repeated transformation throughout the child’s development, right up to adolescence.
Syncretism and the beginning of knowledge of the world
A child begins to explore the world when his knowledge base is not enough. First of all, the child does not understand that any phenomenon has external and internal signs. And therefore, at first, he combines the phenomena visible to him into one judgment, simply because he sees these phenomena at the same time. This is the essence of syncretism in understanding psychology.
As a result, the child will have a whole set of judgments, among which he will begin to highlight those that turned out to be correct. And the further you go, the more such judgments the child will find. In just a few years, children will essentially learn logic and learn to deduce cause-and-effect relationships.
The main feature of syncretism
The main feature of this psychological function is its subjectivity. A child sometimes gives conclusions that are incredible and funny for adults, which always come exclusively from his own point of view.
This function loses its strength only in the process of mental transition from subjectivity to objectivity. So, for example, a child has the idea that large objects and things are heavy, and small ones, on the contrary, are light. A small pebble in the hands of a child seems very light, but when he throws it into the water, he drowns, since it is heavy for water.
It is almost impossible to explain the objectivity of this phenomenon to a child of early and preschool age. He, of course, can learn this from a specific example and remember it, perhaps he will repeat and share his impressions with interest, but he will not be able to understand that there is a certain pattern, connection and true meaning of this process. Just as he will not be able to apply this knowledge to the example of other things and objects.
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Definition of the word “Syncretism” according to TSB:
Syncretism - Syncretism (from the Greek synkrлtismуs - connection) 1) indivisibility, characterizing the undeveloped state of any phenomenon (for example, art in the initial stages of human culture, when music, singing, poetry, dance were not separated from each other. indivisibility of mental functions at the early stages of child development, etc.). 2) Mixing, inorganic fusion of heterogeneous elements, for example, various cults and religious systems in late antiquity - the religious S. of the Hellenistic period. in philosophy it is a type of eclecticism.
Syncretism - in linguistics, the merging of previously formally different grammatical categories (meanings) in one form, which as a result becomes polysemantic (polyfunctional). For example, in the Latin language, S. in the case system led to the unification of the functions of the instrumental (instrumental) and locative cases in the ablative. S. can manifest itself not only in morphology, but also in syntax. The concept of syntax is paradigmatic (see Paradigmatics), which differs from the neutralization of oppositions (see Linguistic opposition), which occurs in the syntagmatic series (see Syntagmatics). S. is an irreversible systemic shift in the process of language development, while neutralization is a living process that accompanies the use of linguistic units in speech.
Intellectual development and syncretism
Human intellectual development goes through different stages in a given age period. It is pointless to compare the intelligence of a child and an adult, since it is obvious that in childhood all thought processes have not yet been formed, and the functions of logic have not been mastered.
Parents need to know that at each age stage, one or another psychological cognitive process is formed in the child, and new opportunities and abilities are actively used in real life.
Psychologists and teachers call this period sensitive – that is, optimally adapted for the development of a particular psychological function. As an example, consider the following situations:
- A child’s speech develops between the ages of 1 and 3 years.
In other words, everyone understands that it is at this age that a person’s speech apparatus begins to develop.
- Between 4 and 6 years of age, a child has an ideal period for the development of voluntary memory.
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Of course, many of these processes go unnoticed by parents, but if during this period you provide help and support for the development of this function, then the next stages of memory formation will be more successful and effective.
- From 3 to 7 years, a child develops self-awareness.
Most mothers and fathers have heard about the crises of 3 and 7 years old, since it is at this age that you can hear: “I myself,” “I will do it my way,” etc. Stubbornness at this age is pronounced, as the child begins to separate himself from others and tries to find his own boundaries.
The stages of development of thinking in a child are constantly in transition from one type of thinking to another, from visual-effective thinking to visual-figurative, and ultimately to verbal thinking.
This topic of the sensitive period is raised for a reason: parents should know that syncretism occurs from early childhood to adolescence. In this case, there is no point in indicating the exact age, since for each person the development of mental functions can take place in a certain age interval.
As long as a child’s thinking is in the form of a visual-figurative one, syncretism will manifest itself in full, since otherwise his mental processes are not capable of processing information.
A child, in fact, like an adult, has his own specific patterns of action, it is they that allow a person to solve the tasks assigned to him. It is worth understanding that the pattern of action in a baby and a child already 3 years old is significantly different, which means that thinking has already acquired new functions.
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While the child’s cognition is actively developing, he will carry out various manipulations with objects and establish the simplest connections, and there will be syncretism in his thinking.
Syncretism in philosophy
In philosophy, syncretism is an essential characteristic that combines different philosophical trends in one system, but without combining them, and this differs from eclecticism. Although the concept of syncretism is close to it, eclecticism, with the help of criticism, identifies the basic principles from different systems and connects them into a single set.
Syncretism, unlike eclecticism, connects heterogeneous principles, but their true unification never happens, because there is no need to connect them in internal unity with contradictions to each other.
Syncretism was most clearly expressed in Alexandrian philosophy, in particular Philo of Judaea and other philosophers no less, who were trying to connect Greek philosophy and Eastern philosophical movements. The same tendency was present in the supporters of Gnosticism.
Religious-philosophical syncretism combines occult, mystical, spiritualistic and other trends that are unlike traditional religious trends. Such concepts combine components stemming from various religions along with extra-scientific and scientific knowledge. Such religious and philosophical syncretism can be observed in such directions as Gnosticism, Alexandrian philosophy, theosophy, in particular the theosophy of Blavatsky, the anthroposophy of Agni Yoga of the Roerichs or Rudolf Steiner. Based on syncretic religious and philosophical teachings, religious movements began to appear. For example, based on Blavatsky's theosophy, more than a hundred esoteric religious movements appeared.
Syncretism is the principle by which it is determined how a person relates to the world around him, to himself, and how he relates to reproducible activities. It is an essential characteristic of the incomprehension of modalities, it lacks an understanding of how the world differs, various phenomena from logical dually directed oppositions in simultaneous complete disorder (that is, the absence of logical prohibitions) in defining phenomena, correlating them with some of the poles of the opposition based basically everything and in everything.
This idea seems quite absurd at first glance. Because, in fact, how can it be possible to arbitrarily divide the world into the categories of good and evil, for example, and at the same time believe that such a difference is characteristic of the real world? But such nonsense is possible under one circumstance: if, according to this logic, every phenomenon of the world is a werewolf, that is, it is not what it is, it has the ability to turn into something completely different from what it truly is.
This phenomenon occurs when a person thinks using inverse logic. For example, in various cultures there are the following interpretations: a stone can be a totem, a bear can be a brother, a living wolf can be killed by a person, a parrot can be just a person, a worker can be a pest, and so on ad infinitum.
Philosophical thinking allows people to believe so, since there is a difference in culture, as the accumulated experience of humanity, the people and the experience of the individual himself and the appearance of phenomena. This allows each person every day to interpret every phenomenon that is significant for him in the ideas of culture, provided that such a phenomenon can be compared, correlated with a certain component of this culture, and its meaning is “played out” by each pole of the opposition. The meaning of such a phenomenon is constantly twisted in the head; in human activity there is a stable and constant awareness and rethinking.
If a person did not have such an ability, he would not be a person with philosophical thinking.
Syncretism is an essential characteristic of a social, cultural, philosophically filled life, formed by a person’s desire to connect with the natural and social rhythms that are most important to him. It is not independent, separate from the social whole of human responsibility. It is common for him to analyze every difference through the seriousness of the danger of excommunication, cutting off communication with the cosmos, the world around him, with himself and his soul.
Syncretism is revealed as the cause of an uncomfortable feeling of state, a stimulus for greater activity, oriented towards initiation and participation, joining a single whole. Syncretism does not distinguish the universal from the individual. A significant individual phenomenon is a signal for a person that evokes in the consciousness separate undifferentiated general systems of considerations and ideas. Here we also understand the tendency to return to the past, mainly through the fear of separation from the whole, the focus on returning to the totem, leader, social order. This is precisely what represents the basis of syncretic humanity, which, if it moved away from the philosophy of syncretism, at least did not try, using its foundations, to return to a state that is based on a priestly-ideological orientation.
Egocentrism and syncretism
Both of these concepts can be safely called general characteristics of children's thinking. The child is in a special position when all his conclusions and the thought process itself are built exclusively from his point of view, which is the only and absolute one.
The syncretic thinking of a child is precisely characterized by the fact that all his ideas are based on subjective patterns of action. This means that thinking is still devoid of logic, the ability to analyze and synthesize objective connections between things and objects.
While egocentrism is fully manifested, the child does not have the ability to resort to objective connections between objects; his thinking will work exclusively on his subjective patterns of action. Egocentricity in thinking and practical activities will persist until 7-8 years.
Gradually, the child acquires the ability to select and analyze syncretic connections that will allow him to understand and accept the truth of a judgment. Only in adolescence does a child acquire freedom of thought and abandon attachment to objects; he begins to build his judgments based on hypotheses.
Syncretism today
Contemporary art is characterized by a tendency towards synthesis, the unification of various types of art, as well as the emergence on this basis of a qualitatively new product. In theatrical productions, vocal parts alternate with recitatives, stage actions are combined with video demonstrations, and installations are shown at exhibitions. The dance movements are again given a magical meaning, and the dance itself is a theatrical performance.
Television and advertising are syncretic in nature. Modern syncretism is the blurring of the boundaries between high art and everyday life, author and consumer, performer on stage and spectators in the hall.
Probably, a person’s desire for integration is due to the awareness of himself as a member of a certain community, a representative of a clan. Also, in the conditions of a post-industrial society, syncretism in art is due to the need to comprehend the new reality (economic and political crises, the spread of information technology, changing views of man and society) and adapt to it.
