From Thinking to Practice and Back: A Conceptual View of Knowledge Development

Thinking is commonly understood as the reflection of objective reality in subjective consciousness. While this interpretation explains how knowledge arises, it does not fully explain how knowledge develops. This paper proposes a complementary view of practice as the reflection of subjective representations in objective reality through human action. Human beings act not directly on reality itself but according to their understanding of it. Through practice, subjective representations encounter objective reality and generate outcomes that either confirm existing views or reveal their limitations. Thinking and practice therefore form a unified mechanism of cognition. Repeated iterations of this mechanism refine subjective representations and gradually bring them into closer correspondence with objective reality. At the same time, knowledge development is not linear. Different individuals and communities may follow trajectories of different lengths and structures, while the interpretation of practical outcomes may lead not only to progress but also to alternative branches and temporary dead ends.