ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses fundamental processes of developmental change and general patterns of progress in rational agency. The discussion includes the role of argumentation and democratic institutions in the development of individuals and the possibility that groups and societies might themselves show developmental change. Rationality is argued to be neither inherent in human genes nor learned from human environments, though heredity and environment are obviously important. Rather, rationality is constructed over time by increasingly rational agents through rational and social processes of reflection and coordination. Subjectivity is inevitable, but reflection on subjectivity enables progress to metasubjective forms of objectivity and increasingly rational self-governance at individual, social, and societal levels.