Claim. In the rational stage, thinking develops in a spiral form through successive completed four-position foundations — each first-step Logos becoming stored data in the Inner Hyungsang for the next step’s give-and-receive action.
Elaboration. Sang Hun Lee describes the mechanics of rational thought (The Development of Thinking in the Stage of Reason).
Thinking occurs through give-and-receive action between Inner Sungsang and Inner Hyungsang. A first-step Logos (plan, multiplied being) is formed as the conclusion of one round of thinking. Sometimes this concludes the process. In most cases, however, a second-step Logos must be formed: the first conclusion has been stored in the Inner Hyungsang as a new idea/concept, and is mobilized — together with many other data — as input for the next round. The second Logos is similarly stored, mobilized in turn for a third round, and so on.
The result is a spiral: ‘even simple thinking does not end in the first stage but continues many times.’ This is the process of forming the four position foundation in the rational stage.
Two features matter. First, thinking ‘continues to develop infinitely in the rational stage, since it is a developmental four position process.’ There is no upper limit on the iteration. Second, each new step begins only after the previous step is completed; therefore the spiral consists of successive completed four-position foundations. Thinking develops by repeating completed steps — not by leaving steps half-finished.
This matters for the Unification reply to Marxist dialectic. Marx says A is both A and not-A simultaneously (contradiction internal to a single moment). Lee’s spiral structure preserves identity (A=A) within each completed step while admitting genuine development across steps. Identity-maintenance and developmental nature are united in thinking — not at the price of either, but through the succession of completed-and-then-developing four-position foundations. The ‘spiral form’ image — which Hegel and Engels also use — gets reinterpreted: not contradiction-driven ascent but give-and-take iteration centered on purpose.
See also. logical-structure-is-the-inner-four-position-foundation, ut-three-stages-of-cognition-sensory-understanding-rational, two-stage-structure-and-unity-of-theory-and-practice