A 12 year old ted talk with moral philosopher James Flynn. He also mentions how university students in the 50s would go to their parents and grandparents and try to argue using hypotheticals, which never worked. I also noticed that “concrete thinking” is common among children, which is probably our human default.
When you think about it, it makes sense that most people thru history wouldn’t need to bother with hypotheticals, those ideas would be so far removed from their reality that it made no sense to bother thinking about it.
If you’re interested in human intelligence, don’t miss Joseph Henrich’s book, “The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter”.
It has a few fun examples where historical people follow seemingly absurd complex instructions/traditions that are actually beneficial, while nobody ever designed them or knows what they do. It puts logical thinking into perspective.
Interesting, going to check that book