From Symbolic Language to Greed A Process Driven Reconstruction of a Cognitive Singularity

This paper reconstructs a rapid conceptual cascade that occurred during an informal dialogue, revealing a singular cognitive mechanism underlying the emergence of greed. The analysis demonstrates how symbolic language enables self‑reference, which produces identity boundaries, divergence of interest, and the cognitive possibility of personal gain. Greed is reframed not as a moral or cultural construct but as a structural consequence of symbolic cognition. The paper includes a structured timeline of the reasoning process, a formal breakdown of the conceptual chain, and a discussion of the cognitive singularity at its root. This work contributes to theories of symbolic thought, identity formation, cooperation dynamics, and the evolutionary origins of human behaviour.