At the heart of science and everyday consciousness, which we all rely on in everyday life, is the process of cognition. Cognition is the reflection and reproduction of reality in the thinking of the subject, the result of which is new knowledge about the world. As a rule, only the process of searching for truth is called cognition, and its result is called knowledge. Knowledge is the result of knowledge of reality, proven by practice, its true reflection in human thinking.
The essence of scientific knowledge is to find a strict quantitative measure characterizing a particular social process. Quantitative parameters are needed not only by highbrow theorists who test theories in empirical studies and calculate correlations, but also by practicing managers who need to know - either to organize an election campaign, or to build social policy in their district - what, for example, , the percentage of pensioners who agree to take on additional income.
The purpose of knowledge is to acquire not just any knowledge, but true knowledge about the objective world. False knowledge also appears in the process of cognition, but as its necessary costs. Science is trying to get rid of them by regularly cleaning its ranks.
Revision of outdated theories, which at a new stage of history have become misconceptions or partially true knowledge, is one of the main tasks of science. If we add up all the knowledge that scientists had to abandon, or whose truth has been called into question today, then their volume will, perhaps, be compared with the knowledge that has just been acquired and is considered today to be true. A striking example is the denial of the Ptolemaic system by the Copernican system and the limitation of the validity of Newtonian mechanics by quantum physics and the theory of relativity. The term re-search, which in English means scientific knowledge, consists of two halves and involves the constant repetition of a mistake. The dictionary defines research as<критическую и исчерпывающую проверку, имеющую целью пересмотр сделанных выводов и обобщений в свете вновь открытых фактов>1) . The scientist is interested in constant revision, testing of previously accepted views, formalized in a theoretical model. Confirmation and refutation have equal value in science because both lead to a better theory.
Knowledge is understood (a) in a broad sense as any kind of information and (b) in a narrow sense as information confirmed by scientific means. We will use a narrow interpretation, or its technical definition of the term. From here follows the first model, demonstrating the logical relationship between the volumes of the concepts “information” and “knowledge”. The first concept is broader than the second. We will assume that “knowledge” is part of the scope of the concept “information”.
Knowledge does not depend on the personal qualities of people involved in this field. Knowledge acts as a generally significant and self-sufficient sphere of activity. On the contrary, information may contain a fair amount of subjective input and assessment, such as rumors.
The property of scientific knowledge is that all conclusions and hypotheses obtained using the scientific method can be criticized and refuted. If it seems to you that a scientific theory can only be considered a set of statements about the world around us that can never be refuted, then you are deeply mistaken. Scientists recognize only partial truth in their theories. This means that a scientific theory is applicable to a limited range of phenomena under certain conditions and describes a narrow range of phenomena, and with completely specific means and methods. Scientific theories are not universal. Only myths and religious teachings are universal. Therefore, when speaking about the limitations of their theories, scientists see this as one of the main signs of scientificity.
So, there should be many scientific theories in any branch of knowledge (physics, sociology, mathematics, economics), sometimes very many (thousands and thousands). On the contrary, in religion one teaching, for example Orthodoxy, explains all the diversity of the surrounding world, based on one teaching, one picture of the world. Religious teachings are often accused of being contradictory. This means that using a single concept, created several centuries or millennia ago and later only supplemented, adjusted, and partly modified, it is very difficult to explain the constantly changing world. We have to describe it with the most general (they are called philosophical) judgments, abstracting from specific details. On the contrary, scientific theories should be as accurate as possible, based on numbers and facts, systems of knowledge that are easy to change, refute and, if necessary, discard.
Knowledge goes through two main stages - sensory and rational (logical) knowledge. Sensory cognition - the lowest level - is carried out in the form of sensations, perceptions and ideas. It involves five senses - vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste, which are the tools of human communication with the outside world. Sensory images are the only source of all our knowledge about the external world. But in sensory images, predominantly the external side of phenomena is recorded, only the individual is cognized.
At the second stage - rational (logical) knowledge - the identification of the general, essential occurs. The main tool here is thinking and reason. By abstracting from the data obtained through the senses, a person, with the help of judgments, inferences and concepts, learns the patterns of the surrounding world.
Both stages of the process of cognition - sensory and rational - are in unity, transform into each other, and mutually complement each other. They must be allies in a common cause. When a quarrel arises between them and one seeks to dominate at the expense of the other, it is impossible to obtain objectively correct knowledge. They try to gain dominance by belittling the merits of another, reducing the entire process of cognition exclusively to one form - sensory or rational.
The process of cognition also includes other forms of mental activity, such as foresight, fantasy, imagination, dream, intuition. Scientists and you and I often base our actions on intuition, which can be true or false. Laymen, i.e. people who do not have a professional scientific education (which all students are so far), like scientists, trust their intuition 70-80%, considering it a source of knowledge. The way it is. However, scientists have an undoubted advantage - they are able to critically test intuitive insight, turning to the scientific knowledge accumulated by mankind or to their own experiments. Scientists can be considered persons whose main professional responsibility is the constant revision of established knowledge and its replacement with new ones. Sometimes they resemble a team of workers engaged in routine repairs of functioning equipment, sometimes they resemble a group of designers inventing a fundamentally new device.
Intuition serves as the basis for many very important hypotheses that can be tested by other methods. The history of science shows that intuition is an indispensable component of scientific knowledge and its main value lies in finding and formulating hypotheses that, after testing, can become true and justified. Without intuition it is impossible to create a scientific theory. Strictly speaking, the theory itself at the first stage represents a set of assumptions, or hypotheses, which are then tested by experience. Their source is intuition - a scientist’s hypothetical guess about the essence of the process being studied.
However, intuition alone cannot be considered a convincing source of true knowledge about the reality around us. It is often based on unreliable information and fragmentary information. Intuitive knowledge is taken on faith, it is not subject to scientific testing and proof and rather serves as a preliminary step to scientific knowledge. The distinctive feature of scientific knowledge is that it is based on evidence that can be verified. By evidence in this case we will mean the specific results of actual observations that other observers have the opportunity to see, weigh, measure, count or check for accuracy.
The method of obtaining scientific knowledge is not so much intuition, although it plays an important role at the preparatory stage, but rather scientific research.
Research is the process of scientific study of any object (subject, phenomenon - material or ideal) in order to identify its patterns. It relies on specially designed instruments and methods, ranging from a telescope, a barometer, to psychological tests. Moreover, research should not be thought of as a one-time event. For example, the famous labor rationalizer F. Taylor, who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century, studied the laws of cutting and grinding metals for 26 years, and studied the laws of personnel management in an enterprise for more than 30 years. Most scientists specialize in one or two topics, say, work motivation or deviant behavior, and study them throughout their lives, each time adding something new and revising the old.
The research includes the use of particular methods (methods characteristic of individual sciences - physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) and general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, hypothesis, axiomatization, formalization, etc.).
There are two closely related levels of scientific research: 1) empirical - finding new facts, generalizing and searching for trends in the course of a particular process, and 2) theoretical - formulating general patterns, creating a holistic scientific theory, and then forming a detailed scientific picture of the world. Empirical (from the Greek empeiria - experience) means everything that is given to a person on the basis of sensory experiences. Empirical is such knowledge that is obtained through some experimental means and reflects real-life phenomena, for example: the judgment that there were 15 republics in the Soviet Union, or the judgment that Petrov’s height is 1 m 72 cm. This is theoretical. knowledge that is only indirectly based on reality, but is created by scientists from some abstract concepts. Theoretical knowledge is universal, unlike empirical knowledge, and does not depend on a specific time and place. With its help, science penetrates into that world that is invisible neither to the eye nor to the instrument, and therefore cannot become a source of empirical knowledge. Empirically, the physicist sees a trace in the bubble cloud chamber, but only with the help of theory is he able to establish that in fact science has discovered an electron orbit. In the same way, in sociology it is impossible to see cohesion or solidarity, but such knowledge can be obtained on the basis of empirically observable signs, such as, for example, a group spending leisure time together or people speaking at a protest demonstration.
Using only four methods - observation, questioning, interviews, document analysis, a sociologist creates a rich palette of empirical facts that reflect the real picture of society. However, this totality would remain a pile of raw material, and not a complete picture of the world, if the scientist did not have a reliable and very effective mechanism for ordering them. It is called theoretical thinking, which is based on logic. When they say: logic is the mechanism for constructing theoretical knowledge, they mean that all propositions of the theory should logically follow from each other and should not contradict each other.
Logic is the study of how theoretical judgments (whether ordinary or scientific) are interconnected, and by what rules others are derived from one judgment. Logic is needed at the stage of constructing theoretical knowledge. At the stage of constructing empirical knowledge, logic is replaced by statistics.
The main components of scientific research are: setting goals and objectives; preliminary analysis of literature on the topic; formulation of initial hypotheses; organizing and conducting field research (survey, observation, experiment, etc.); analysis and synthesis of the obtained data; testing initial hypotheses based on the obtained facts; final formulation of new facts and laws, obtaining explanations or scientific predictions. The final stage of any research should be the implementation of the results obtained. The result of the research should be the acquisition of new scientific knowledge - objective truth, i.e., the correspondence of the newly formulated knowledge with the actual state of the object, as well as the practical results planned by the research program.
The classical concept of science, which dominated for a long time, namely from Aristotle to the representatives of positivism, distinguished scientific meaning from non-scientific meaning by characterizing the former as true, universal and apodictic. Arbitrary constructions, subjective opinions, intuitive guesses and ordinary knowledge do not meet one of these requirements - the criterion of validity. Therefore, they are not classified as science. Although they all fully correspond to another sign - truth. In other words, each of the properties is necessary, but not sufficient, and only together they serve as a convincing criterion for scientific character.
Truth is the reflection in human consciousness of objects and phenomena as they exist outside and independently of the cognizing subject. Truth is an objectively correct reproduction of reality in the human mind. But truth is not only the achieved result in the form of judgments, concepts, theories. Truth is a process of movement from ignorance to knowledge, from less profound to increasingly deeper knowledge. Truth, therefore, cannot be considered as something frozen, ossified, an unchanging reflection of the objects of reality. There are no eternal, unchanging truths. Truth is always relative, since it does not cover the entire content of the subject under study, but only part of it. As knowledge progresses, a person gradually overcomes the relativity of truth, adds new knowledge that rechecks, confirms or discards old knowledge that was previously considered true. The criterion of truth is practice. All scientific truths are based on experimental data, they are constantly revised in the light of new evidence, new experimental data.
Sometimes you can hear that truth is inherent in the objects and phenomena themselves. But we cannot agree with this. There are no true or false tables, but there are desks and dining tables, school tables and office tables. Truth is not a property of the objects themselves. The concept of truth extends only to human thoughts, which can actually be either true or false. Truth is opposed in knowledge by falsehood. A lie is an untruth, a distortion of the actual state of affairs, intended to deceive someone. The source of a lie can be logically incorrect thinking, incorrect facts, etc. A lie can be understood as an invention about something that did not happen, or a deliberate concealment of what did happen. In logic - science and correct reasoning - falsity means the negation of truth, and truth means the negation of falsehood.
The validity or proof of theoretical knowledge does not depend or, in principle, should not depend on whether scientists have reached agreement among themselves or not, whether they consider the knowledge to be true or not. To prove the truth of a theory, there are extrapersonal means and mechanisms - repeatability of empirical generalizations, experimental data, etc. The truth is proven by other scientists in independent studies and repeated experiments conducted in different countries.
The highest form of theoretical knowledge is philosophical comprehension of the world. Philosophy (from phil... and Greek sophia - wisdom) is a system of ideas, views on the world and the place of man in it. She explores the cognitive, socio-political, value, ethical and aesthetic attitude of a person to the world. Historically established main sections of philosophy: ontology (the doctrine of being), epistemology (theory of knowledge), logic, ethics, aesthetics. In solving various philosophical problems, such opposing directions as dialectics and metaphysics, rationalism and empiricism (sensualism), materialism (realism) and idealism, naturalism and spiritualism, determinism and indeterminism, etc. have emerged. The main trends of modern philosophy are associated with the understanding of such fundamental problems such as the world and the place of man in it, the fate of modern human civilization, the diversity and unity of culture, the nature of human cognition, existence and language.
Philosophy plays an integrating role in relation to all other sciences. There was a time when no sciences yet existed, and philosophy had already emerged as an independent system of ideas. Having created the most general picture of the world, its structure and development, indicating ways of knowing this world, defining the goals and meaning of human life, as well as some general laws of society, philosophy gave birth to all specific sciences. At different historical stages, they continually emerged from the mother womb of philosophy, acquired a mass of concrete facts, adopted technical means, and penetrated into such depths of the structure of matter and human behavior that a philosopher, armed only with his own contemplation, could not penetrate.
It was within the framework of philosophy that the methods of analysis and synthesis of knowledge, deduction and induction, movement from simple to complex and from phenomena to essence reached their perfection. Philosophical thinking is characterized not only by universality, but also by integrity and systematic comprehension of social life. Philosophical thinking implies the power of mind, logic, observation, and the ability to identify the universal human meaning of a phenomenon in individual facts. Philosophy gives science a holistic vision of a problem, the ability to highlight the universal in the individual, the desire to connect conclusions into a logically consistent chain. Almost all sciences known today, including sociology, arose from philosophy. How, you ask? At the next stage of knowledge, it became obvious that general discussions about the physical nature, chemical structure of matter, the human psyche or the structure of society were not enough - completely specific and accurate knowledge was needed. Philosophers began to specialize in physics, chemistry, psychology and sociology, gradually turning into scientists. The philosophical roots of concrete scientific knowledge continue to be felt in any discipline, therefore, at each stage of knowledge, having generalized the next portion of new knowledge and for a deeper understanding of it, scientists again and again turn to the philosophical foundations of their science. This procedure makes it possible to put in order the diversity of knowledge, to identify its structure and internal laws. Philosophy continues to perform the regulatory functions of the methodology of scientific knowledge today. Its importance should not be diminished. But it cannot be exaggerated, otherwise all sociologists, instead of conducting field research, will engage in armchair reflections and speculation. This happened in Soviet science only 10-15 years ago.
The main method of philosophical knowledge is theoretical thinking, based on the cumulative experience of mankind, on the achievements of all sciences. The advantage of the philosophical method lies in obtaining a generalized picture of the world, i.e. extremely broad theoretical understanding of life. The orbit of philosophical search includes not only natural, but also social life. The philosophical study of social life is called social philosophy.
Social philosophy played an important role in identifying the final causes, the eternal foundations of social existence, in understanding those fundamental principles on which relationships between people in society are built. She has a centuries-old historical tradition behind her: the ancient doctrine of society, the philosophical tradition of Renaissance humanism, the doctrine of French materialists about the ultimate driving forces of human activity, the political theories of Enlightenment society, the doctrine of the social contract (T. Hobbes), natural human rights (D. Locke), created already in modern times, ideas<философию жизни>XX century.
Philosophy in its methods is a speculative, contemplative science. The cognitive techniques she uses (for example, a thought experiment) give a significant result only for solving<вечных>problems of human existence. We are talking about identifying universal trends that manifest themselves in the behavior of each person. When knowledge of real phenomena and an answer to specific questions are required, then it is necessary to move from philosophy to the social sciences. Not being intended to answer specific questions, not having the necessary cognitive tools for this, philosophy is forced to turn to purely speculative methods.
Science, unlike philosophy, does not provide abstract and therefore universal knowledge, but specific and therefore limited knowledge to a specific area of application. It is only through its limitations and caution that science is able to accurately predict real phenomena. This is the paradox of scientific knowledge: an accurate prediction implies a 30, 60 or 82 percent probability of an event occurring, but not a 100 percent probability. The approximate accuracy of a scientist is valued much higher than the 100% assurances of a utopian theorist. In former times, scientific communism scientifically justified the advent of communism in 1980. But the event he predicted, as we know, did not happen. Although the forecast was based on<научных>evidence and<объективных>laws, it did not come true. But if a sociologist predicts that with a 72% probability, the poor and poorly educated segments of the population who are of pre- or post-retirement age, especially those living in rural areas, will vote for the Communists in the next elections, then the forecast will most likely come true. The sociologist sets aside the remaining 28% for all sorts of deviations that are always inherent in real people. It may happen that part of the poor elderly electorate of the communists, having seen enough of the abuses of the local administration made up of communists, will become disillusioned with them and begin to vote for the democrats. Nobody knows exactly how many there are - neither statistics, nor sociology, nor local authorities.
The approximate judgment of a sociologist is also based on the methodology of a sample survey. By interviewing 2000 people, a sociologist judges 20,000,000 people. Although the sample population is intended to serve as an exact copy of the general population, absolute accuracy can never be achieved. The coincidence of two types of populations - general and sample - will always be approximate. The sample population reflects the general population in percentage proportions. What does it mean? If in the general population, for simplicity, we take the entire population of Russia of 146 million people, 52% of women and 48% of men, 23% of pensioners, 63% of the poor, etc., then in the sample population the same percentages should remain, but already not among 148 million people, but only among 2000 respondents. Even if we ignore the representativeness error (deviation of the percentage of the sample population from the general population), then 2000 respondents will still give a very rough picture of the opinions inherent in 148 million Russians.
Nevertheless, science, despite its many limitations, provides irreplaceable information. Having met a stranger, a divorced woman, a pensioner or<нового русского>, we can say with a great degree of accuracy about him, how he will work and spend his leisure time, whether he will remarry, etc. What have we done? We identified a stranger with his social group (we identified him<социальную прописку>), and, knowing how this social group behaves in general, they predicted the behavior of a specific stranger. Thus, a particular sociological theory that operates with the quantifier of existence helps us in practical matters.
The concept of “cognition”, its structure and stages
Humanity has always strived to acquire new knowledge. The process of mastering the secrets of the surrounding world is an expression of the highest aspirations of the creative activity of the mind, which constitutes the great pride of humanity. Over the millennia of its development, humanity has passed a long and thorny path of knowledge from the primitive and limited to an ever deeper and more comprehensive penetration into the essence of being. On this path, an innumerable number of facts, properties and laws of nature, social life and man himself were discovered, and constant changes in “pictures” and “images” of the world took place. Developing knowledge went hand in hand with the development of production, with the flourishing of the arts and artistic creativity. The human mind comprehends the laws of the world not for the sake of simple curiosity (although curiosity is one of the driving forces of human life), but for the sake of practical transformation of both nature and man with the goal of the most harmonious life of man in the world. The knowledge of mankind forms a complex system, which acts in the form of social memory, its wealth and diversity are transmitted from generation to generation, from people to people through the mechanism of social heredity and culture.
Knowledge does not arise on its own; it is the result of a special process - the cognitive activity of people.
So, cognition- this is the process of acquiring and developing knowledge, its constant deepening, expansion and improvement.
The process of cognition, no matter how it occurs, is always an interaction between a subject and an object, the result of which is knowledge about the world around us.
This is someone who wants to gain knowledge about the world around them.
This is what the subject’s cognitive activity is aimed at.
IN structure of cognition can be distinguished the following elements.
Man began to think about what knowledge is, what ways of acquiring knowledge, already in ancient times, when he realized himself as something opposed to nature, as an agent in nature. Over time, the conscious formulation of this question and the attempt to solve it acquired a relatively harmonious form, and then knowledge about knowledge itself emerged. All philosophers, as a rule, in one way or another, analyzed the problems of the theory of knowledge. There were two approaches to the question of how a person knows the world: some philosophers believed that we know the world with our feelings, others with our minds. The group of first philosophers is called sensualists(, F. Bacon, L. Feuerbach), group of the second - rationalists(, R. Descartes, B. Spinoza). There is a third concept of knowledge - agnosticism- denial of the possibility of knowing the world (D. Hume).
Modern science considers sensory and rational cognition as two successive stages in the formation of cognition.
Historically and logically, the first stage of the cognitive process is sensory cognition- cognition through the senses. Sensory cognition as a whole is characterized by a reflection of the world in a visual form, the presence of a direct connection between a person and reality, a reflection of mainly external aspects and connections, and the beginning of comprehension of internal dependencies based on the initial generalization of sensory data.
The basic feelings of a person were described by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle more than two thousand years ago. These are taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell.
Man's sensory cognition of the world is carried out in three main forms.
Sensations, perceptions and ideas in the process of cognition act interconnectedly and are influenced by rational forms of cognition and logical thinking.
Rational knowledge is most fully reflected in thinking. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly understand the content of this most important concept. - the active process of reflecting the surrounding world that occurs during practice. Human thinking is not a purely natural property, but a function of a social subject developed in the process of objective activity and communication.
So, rational cognition- this is penetration into the essence of things, operating with ideal images using logical thinking. The main forms of rational knowledge are:
Sensory and rational cognition are two stages of cognition and do not contradict each other. These two forms of cognition are in constant interaction and form an inextricable unity of the cognitive process. Rational forms of cognition are impossible without forms of sensory cognition, because this is where they get their source material. At the same time, sensory knowledge is influenced by rational knowledge. Sensations, perceptions and ideas of a person carry within themselves the characteristics of all spiritual and intellectual activity of consciousness.
Forms and methods of scientific knowledge
The origin of sciences occurred in the Ancient world. But they began to take shape in the 16th-17th centuries. In the course of history, development science has become a major force influencing all spheres of society.
This is a form of human activity aimed at producing knowledge about nature, society and knowledge itself, with the immediate goal of comprehending the truth. Science in a broad sense includes all the conditions and components of scientific activity:
division and cooperation of scientific work;
scientific institutions, experimental and laboratory equipment;
research methods;
scientific information system;
the entire amount of previously accumulated scientific knowledge.
Modern science is an extremely ramified collection of individual scientific branches. The subject of science is not only the world around man, various forms and types of movement of matter, but also their reflection in consciousness - that is, man himself. The main task of science is to identify the objective laws of reality, and its immediate goal- objective truth.
Scientific knowledge is distinguished by the desire for objectivity, i.e. to study the world as it is, regardless of man. The result obtained should not depend on private opinions, preferences, or authorities. Therefore, scientific knowledge is inherent following signs:
objectivity;
consistency;
focus on practice;
evidence;
validity of the results obtained;
reliability of the conclusions.
Currently exists next classification of sciences:
natural sciences - study the natural world;
technical sciences - study the world of technology;
humanities - study the human world;
social sciences - study the world of society.
Every science includes four necessary components.
The subject of science is a researcher carrying out scientific activities.
The object of science is the subject of research, i.e. what area does this science study?
A system of methods and techniques characteristic of studying within the framework of a given science.
The language of science is its unique terminology (basic concepts, symbols, mathematical equations, chemical formulas, etc.).
It is necessary to understand that scientific knowledge is an integral, developing system that has a rather complex structure. The structure of scientific knowledge includes:
1) factual material obtained experimentally;
2) the results of its initial generalization;
3) fact-based problems and scientific assumptions (hypotheses);
4) patterns, principles and theories;
5) methods of scientific knowledge;
6) thinking style.
Scientific knowledge is a developing system of knowledge that includes two main interconnected levels.
A form of knowledge, the content of which is that which has not yet been known by man, but that needs to be known.
A form of knowledge containing an assumption formed on the basis of facts, the true meaning of which is uncertain and requires proof.
The most developed form of scientific knowledge, providing a holistic reflection of the natural and significant connections of a certain area of reality.
In scientific knowledge, not only its final result must be true, but also the path leading to it, i.e. method. Most common methods of scientific knowledge are:
analysis - decomposition of an object into components, which allows you to carefully examine the structure of the object being studied;
synthesis - the process of combining into a single whole properties, characteristics, relationships, identified through the analysis of the phenomena being studied;
analogy - assigning similar properties to the object being studied if it is similar to a familiar object;
induction - the transition from particular, isolated cases to a general conclusion, from individual facts to generalizations;
deduction - the transition from the general to the particular, from general judgments about phenomena to particular ones;
systems approach is a set of methods, techniques and principles of cognition of phenomena as systems.
Methods for studying phenomena can be very diverse, but they must meet one necessary condition - not contradict each other.
proposed his solution, which is based on the principle of correspondence: truth is the correspondence of knowledge to an object, reality. R. delusion is an incompletely known truth. How to distinguish true knowledge from error? In other words: what is the criterion of truth? In social science there are the following criteria of truth:experimental data;
theoretically based knowledge;
compliance with the surrounding world.
Truth is objective in its content, but subjective in its form of expression. In any knowledge there is a subjective principle associated with the characteristics of the senses, nervous system, brain activity, with our abilities, interests, and attitude to the world.
Is it possible to have complete, absolute knowledge, in other words, absolute truth? Absolute truth completely exhausts the subject and cannot be refuted with the further development of knowledge. But, in this case, there is no absolute truth, it is always relative, since the world around us is endless and inexhaustible. At the same time, absolute truth can be considered as a model or limit to which our knowledge strives. Absolute truth appears in this case as an infinite sum of relative truths that humanity formulates throughout the history of its development.
Control questions
What is cognition?
Name the types of cognition.
What are the forms of sensory knowledge?
What are the forms of rational knowledge?
What types of sciences do you know?
What are the characteristics of scientific knowledge?
What are the levels and methods of scientific knowledge?
What is truth and what are its criteria?
Is absolute truth achievable?
| Parameter name | Meaning |
| Article topic: | Knowledge of the world |
| Rubric (thematic category) | Production |
Personality
Personality- ϶ᴛᴏ a human individual who is a subject of social activity, possessing a set of socially significant traits, properties and qualities that he realizes in public life.
Personality is formed in the process of upbringing and human activity, under the influence of a particular society and its culture. Not every human individual is a person. One becomes a person through the process of socialization.
Socialization represents the process of personality formation, its gradual assimilation of the requirements of society, the acquisition of socially significant characteristics of consciousness and behavior that regulate its relationship with society. Personal socialization begins in the first years of life and continues throughout life.
The process of socialization goes through several stages: childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age. A distinction is made between initial or primary socialization (it occurs in childhood and adolescence), and continued or secondary socialization (in adulthood and old age).
The formation of personality in the process of socialization occurs with the help of so-called agents and institutions of socialization.
Socialization agents are specific people responsible for teaching other people cultural norms and helping them learn various social roles. Agents of primary socialization (they play a crucial role in the development of personality) are parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, teachers, etc. Agents of secondary socialization are university officials, enterprises, TV employees, etc.
Socialization institutions are social institutions that influence and guide the socialization process. There are also institutions of primary socialization (family, school) and institutions of secondary socialization (media, army, church).
During the period of secondary socialization, the individual must be the subject of the processes of desocialization and resocialization.
Desocialization is the loss or conscious rejection of acquired values, norms of behavior, social roles, habitual way of life. Resocialization is the reverse process of restoring lost values and social roles, retraining, returning the individual to a normal lifestyle. If the process of desocialization is too deep, it can destroy the foundations of personality, which will be impossible to restore.
1. Cognition as an activity.
Cognition– active reflection of reality in a person’s consciousness, the process of his comprehension of new facts, phenomena, laws of reality.
Cognition- ϶ᴛᴏ the process of creative activity of people with the aim of finding the truth.
Cognition- ϶ᴛᴏ spiritual activity aimed at acquiring and developing knowledge.
Cognition can be defined as a process of human activity, the main content of which is the reflection of objective reality in his consciousness, and the result is the acquisition of new knowledge about the world around him. Scientists distinguish the following types of knowledge: everyday, scientific, philosophical, artistic, social. None of these types of cognitive activity is isolated from the others; they are all closely interrelated with each other.
In the process of cognition there are always two sides: the subject of cognition and the object of cognition. In a narrow sense, the subject of knowledge usually means a cognizing person, endowed with will and consciousness; in a broad sense, the entire society. The object of cognition, accordingly, is either the object being cognized, or - in a broad sense - the entire surrounding world within the boundaries within which individual people and society as a whole interact with it.
Also, the object of knowledge should be the person himself: almost every person is capable of making himself an object of knowledge. In such cases they say that self-knowledge takes place. Self-knowledge represents both self-knowledge and the formation of a certain attitude towards oneself: towards one’s qualities, states, capabilities, i.e. self-esteem . The process of a subject analyzing his consciousness and his attitude towards life is called reflection. Reflection is not just the subject’s knowledge or understanding of himself, but also finding out how others know and understand the “reflector,” his personal characteristics, emotional reactions and cognitive (i.e., related to cognition) representations.
There are two stages of cognitive activity: sensory and rational knowledge.
Sensory cognition
Sensual ( or sensitive) cognition (from German sensitiv - perceived by the senses), a person receives information about objects and phenomena of the surrounding world with the help of the senses. The three main forms of sensory cognition are:
a) sensation, which is a reflection of individual properties and qualities of objects in the surrounding world that directly affect the senses. Sensations can be visual, auditory, tactile, etc.;
b) perception, during which the subject of cognition forms a holistic image that reflects objects and their properties that directly affect the sense organs. Being a necessary stage in the process of cognition, perception is always more or less associated with attention and usually has a certain emotional connotation;
c) representation - a form of cognition in which a sensory reflection (sensory image) of objects and phenomena is retained in consciousness, which allows it to be reproduced mentally even if it is absent and does not affect the senses. The idea does not have a direct connection with the reflected object and is a product of memory (i.e., a person’s ability to reproduce images of objects that do not currently affect him). There are iconic (vision) and echonic (hearing) memory. Based on the time information is retained in the brain, memory is divided into long-term and short-term. Long-term memory provides long-term (hours, years, and sometimes decades) retention of knowledge, skills, and abilities and is characterized by a huge amount of stored information.
The main mechanism for entering data into long-term memory and fixing it, as a rule, is repetition, which is carried out at the level of short-term memory. Short-term memory, in turn, provides operational retention and transformation of data directly coming from the senses.
The role of sensory cognition of reality in ensuring the entire process of cognition is great and is manifested in the fact that:
1) the senses are the only channel that directly connects a person with the outside world;
2) without sense organs, a person is not capable of either cognition or thinking in general;
3) the loss of even part of the sense organs complicates and complicates the process of cognition, although it does not exclude it (this is explained by the mutual compensation of some sense organs by others, the mobilization of reserves in the active sense organs, the individual’s ability to concentrate his attention, etc.);
4) the senses provide that minimum of primary information, which turns out to be necessary and sufficient in order to perceive the objects of the material and spiritual world from many sides.
At the same time, sensory cognition also has some significant drawbacks, the most important of which is the well-known physiological limitations of the human sense organs: many objectively existing objects (for example, atoms) cannot be directly reflected in the sense organs. A sensory picture of the world is necessary, but it is not sufficient for a deep, comprehensive knowledge of the world. For this reason, the second stage of cognitive activity is rational knowledge (from the Latin ratio - reason).
Rational cognition
At this stage of cognition, relying on data obtained as a result of direct interaction of a person with the surrounding world, with the help of thinking, they are streamlined and an attempt is made to comprehend the essence of cognizable objects and phenomena. Rational knowledge is carried out in the form of concepts, judgments and inferences.
A concept is a form (type) of thought that reflects the general and essential features of cognizable objects or phenomena. The same object can appear both in the form of a sensory representation and in the form of a concept. According to the degree of generality, concepts are less general, more general and extremely general. In scientific knowledge, the concepts of particular scientific, general scientific and universal, i.e. philosophical, are also distinguished. In relation to reality (in terms of the depth of its reflection, comprehension and direction), philosophical scientists distinguish four classes of concepts:
1) concepts that reflect the generalities in objects;
2) concepts that cover the essential characteristics of objects;
3) concepts that reveal the meaning and meaning of objects;
4) concepts-ideas.
The next form of rational knowledge is judgment. A judgment is a form of thought in which a connection is established between individual concepts and, with the help of this connection, something is affirmed or denied. When making a judgment, a person uses concepts, which, in turn, are elements of judgment. Although a proposition finds its expression only in language, it is independent of a particular language and must be expressed by different sentences of the same language or different languages.
Obtaining new judgments on the basis of existing ones using the laws of logical thinking is usually called inference. Inferences are divided into deductive and inductive. The name "deductive" comes from the Latin word deductio (deduction). Deductive inference is a chain of reasoning, the links of which (statements) are connected by relations of logical consequence from general statements to specific ones. In contrast, inductive inferences (from the Latin inductio - guidance) are arranged in a chain in sequence from particular to general. Through deductive reasoning, one “infers” a certain thought from other thoughts, while inductive reasoning only “suggests” an idea.
Rational knowledge is closely connected with the reflected reality, i.e. with sensory knowledge, and serves as the basis for it. At the same time, in contrast to sensory cognition, which exists in consciousness in the form of images, the results of rational cognition are fixed in sign forms (systems) or in language. Rational cognition has the ability to reflect the essential in objects, while as a result of sensitive cognition, the essential in an object or phenomenon is not distinguished from the inessential. With the help of rational cognition, the process of constructing concepts and ideas occurs, which are then embodied in reality.
At the same time, although sensory and rational knowledge play a huge role in obtaining new knowledge, nevertheless, in many cases they are not enough to solve any (and primarily scientific) problems. And then intuition plays an important role in this process.
Intuition is a person’s ability to comprehend the truth through its direct assimilation without justification with the help of any evidence. Intuition is a specific cognitive process that directly leads to new knowledge. The prevalence and universality of intuition is confirmed by numerous observations of people, both in everyday conditions and in non-standard situations, in which, having a limited amount of information, they make the correct choice of their actions, as if anticipating that they need to do just that, and not otherwise.
A person’s intuitive ability is characterized by the following features:
1) the unexpectedness of the solution to the task;
2) lack of awareness of the ways and means of resolving it;
3) the direct nature of comprehending the truth.
For different people, intuition can have different degrees of distance from consciousness, be specific in content, the nature of the result, and the depth of penetration into the essence of a phenomenon or process. The intuitive work of thinking occurs in the subconscious sphere, sometimes in a state of sleep. Intuition should not be overestimated, just as its role in the process of cognition should not be ignored. Sensory cognition, rational cognition and intuition are important and mutually complementary means of cognition.
Sensory cognition is the living contemplation of objects using the senses (touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell).
Sensation is a reflection of individual properties and qualities of objects in the surrounding world that directly affect the senses.
Perception is when the subject of cognition forms a holistic image that reflects objects and their properties that directly affect the senses.
Representation - a sensory reflection of objects and phenomena is preserved in consciousness, which makes it possible to reproduce it mentally even if it is absent and does not affect the senses.
Conclusion: the result of sensory cognition is a subjective image of the objective world.
Rational cognition is when, with the help of thinking, a person gains an idea of things and their properties.
A concept is a form of thought that reflects the general and essential features of cognizable objects or phenomena.
Inference is obtaining new judgments based on existing ones using the laws of logical thinking.
Judgment is a form of thought in which a connection is established between individual concepts and, with the help of this connection, something is affirmed or denied.
Memory (storage of previously received information) plays a major role in information processing: operational, long-term, short-term.
There is no consensus among philosophers about the ways of knowledge.
But the purpose of knowledge is to achieve the truth, to have correct, reliable knowledge about the surrounding reality.
Knowledge of the world - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Knowledge of the World" 2017, 2018.
18. KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD. CONCEPT AND CRITERIA OF TRUTH
Cognition– a person’s acquisition of information and knowledge about the world around him. A person perceives through hearing, smell, touch, and vision.
Forms of knowledge: sensation (an elementary, one-time result of the influence of the surrounding world on the human sense organ); perception (a holistic image of an object, realized by a person); representation (an image of objects and phenomena that arises without the influence of the objects themselves).
Types of knowledge: everyday, mythological, religious, artistic, philosophical, scientific.
The problem of the cognizability of the world. One of the most important questions in science and philosophy is the question of whether the world is knowable. Philosophers who solve this problem are divided into those who recognize the knowability of the surrounding world (epistemological optimism, from Greek the best) and who denies this possibility (agnosticism, from Greek inaccessible to knowledge). Most philosophers believe that knowledge of the world is possible (Aristotle). However, many thinkers have written about man’s inability to know. (skepticism, from Greek I doubt) either due to the limitations of human cognitive abilities (Hume), or due to the existence of unknowable things (Kant).
In the problem of methods of cognition, there is a division into rational cognition (cognition through reason) and empirical cognition (cognition through sensations, feelings and emotions). Depending on the dominance of one of the methods, philosophers are divided into rationalists (F. Bacon, Descartes, Hegel) and empiricists (Hume, Berkeley).
Truth and its criteria. Truth is the correct idea of reality, of the world around us. The concept of truth is the correspondence of knowledge to reality. Criteria of truth (from the Greek standard for evaluation) are means of checking the truth or falsity of a statement.
Criteria of truth: obviousness, verifiability through experiments and experiments (experiment - research through active action, putting forward a hypothesis, observation and measurement). According to the pragmatic philosophical concept, only valuable knowledge is true (C. Pierce, Y James). For supporters of the “convention theory” (A. Poincaré, P. Duhem), nothing is true, and truth is just an agreement (convention) between scientists about what is considered true and false.
There is a division between objective and absolute truth. Absolute truth– exhaustive, complete and reliable knowledge about nature, man and society. Objective truth– incomplete or unreliable knowledge about something that corresponds to the level of development of society. Objective truth is knowledge that was once considered true, but was later refuted (for example, medieval ideas about the sky as a glass dome and the rotation of stars around the Earth).
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