The Fundamental Ontology of Developmental Psychology: The Development of the Self as a Systematic Relationship between the Concept of the World and the Concept of the Self in Orientation towards Absolute Infinity

Abstract

In contemporary models of developmental psychology, human development is divided into a series of stages. All of these models are based on certain worldviews that create an overarching framework. This gives the world an arbitrary ontology as well as a limiting direction for development. In contrast, it is shown here that, following Jaspers, there is a need for the orientation towards absolute infinity and consequently an openness of worldviews, and that, following Heidegger, developmental psychology must necessarily build on fundamental ontology. This fundamental ontology of developmental psychology is then determined by, first, identifying the basic inner orientation of the self as the relation between the self and its most general essence and being, and, second, by describing the ontological nature of the most general essence of being and entity. Following this, a new development model based on the fundamental ontology is described.

Keywords: developmental psychology, fundamental ontology, absolute infinity, worldviews, being, entity