Cognition has two sides: sensual and rational, between which there is a complex interaction1. Sensual knowledge is a reflection of reality in sensory images, rational - in concepts, judgments, conclusions.
The main forms of sensory cognition:
1. Sensation is a reflection of the properties, signs, aspects of individual material objects, things, phenomena (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory: color, light, sound, smell, taste, etc.).
2. Perception is a holistic image of an object, an object that affects the senses. This image arises as a result of the simultaneous, mutually coordinated work of several sense organs.
3. Representation - these are images of objects restored thanks to the traces preserved in our brain, but in the absence of the objects themselves.
What are the features of sensory cognition? All sensory knowledge is immediate. Sensual images arise insofar as the object directly affects our sense organs and nervous system. Sensory cognition is the gateway through which a person establishes contact with the outside world. From the standpoint of dialectical materialism, the forms of sensory cognition are subjective images of the objective world. That is, their content is objective, since it is determined by external influences, and not by the consciousness of the subject.
What does "subjective image" mean? This means that the form of our sensations depends on how our nervous system is arranged. We, for example, do not perceive radio and magnetic waves, but some animals perceive them. An eagle is more vigilant than a man, he sees farther, but a man notices, sees many times more than an eagle. The dog has a more subtle sense of smell, but it does not distinguish even 1/1000 of those smells that a person distinguishes. The subjectivity of the image lies in the fact that when two types of matter interact, the sensation depends on how it is reflected in the human nervous system (an external influence is transformed by the nervous system). For example, the sweetness of sugar, the saltiness of salt in relation to the tongue rather than water, the smell of a rose in relation to the sense of smell.
However, in the history of philosophy there was a concept according to which our sensations, perceptions are not images, not copies, but only conventional signs, symbols, hieroglyphs that have nothing to do with things and their properties. This theory was formulated by the German physiologist G. Helmholtz (1821-1894)1, who relied on the theory of another German physiologist (naturalist) J. Müller (1801-1858)2. According to Muller's theory, the specificity of sensations is determined not by the nature of objects and things, but by the peculiar structure of the human senses, each of which represents a closed system (the so-called law on the specific energy of the senses). For example, the sensation of a bright flash can occur both under the influence of bright light and from a strong blow to the eye, i.e. our sense organs, according to the theory of I. Muller, do not give us any idea about the qualitative side of objects, phenomena.
From the standpoint of dialectical materialism, this theory is a concession to agnosticism, because symbols, signs are possible (permissible) in relation to non-existent things, for example, goblin, brownies, miracle workers, etc.
And yet, do our senses give us the opportunity to adequately reflect reality? Even Ludwig Feuerbach noted that a person has exactly as many sense organs as necessary for the correct knowledge of the world. If our feelings did not reflect the objective world as it is, then a person, like any animal, would not be able to biologically adapt to environmental conditions, i.e. survive. And the very emergence of such a doubt speaks for the fact that we correctly reflect reality, otherwise we would not doubt it.
What does sensory knowledge give us in general? Knowledge of individual properties, attributes of things, external connections between them, i.e. gives knowledge of the individual, the concrete, the visible. Knowledge of the general, essential, natural, abstract is achieved by rational cognition, by reason. Naturally, studying a separate subject, we get an idea about the totality of homogeneous subjects. This means that sensory cognition also gives the moment of common, common connections. However, only the mind can single out this general, separate it from the particular, specific, individual. The main forms of rational (logical, abstract knowledge): concept, judgment, conclusion.
A concept is a thought (a form of thinking) that reflects objects in their most general and essential features (“to understand means to “grab”, “catch”, “embrace”).
How are concepts formed? They are formed by highlighting the general and essential, i.e. such signs that distinguish these objects from many other objects and things of the material world. The selection of the general is accompanied at the same time by a distraction (abstraction) from other features that are less important for characterizing this kind of objects. For example, in the concept of "chair" we abstract from the shape of the back, the presence or absence of upholstery, the shape of the legs, color, etc. But in the concept of "chair" such signs are concentrated that will help us distinguish a chair as an object for sitting, having 4 legs and a back. Having the concept of a chair, we will call a chair any object that has these features and we will be able to distinguish it, for example, from an armchair or a sofa. Thus, the concept is both general, essential and at the same time abstract, abstract. In speech, the concept is expressed by the word.
There are concepts that reflect objects (human, plant, animal, earth, moon, etc.), properties (warm, cold, sweet, bitter, green, red, light, dark, etc.), interaction (movement, rest , speed, energy, etc.)
Judgment is a form of thought in which something is affirmed or denied about something. Judgment is such a form of rational thinking in which a person expresses a thing in its connections and relations. In speech, a judgment is expressed in the form of a sentence. There are several types of judgments: judgment of singularity (friction is a source of heat); judgment of a feature (mechanical form of motion is a source of heat); judgment of the universal (any form of movement is capable of transforming into any other form of movement).
Inference is a process of thinking when a new judgment is derived from two or more judgments, containing new knowledge in comparison with the original premises.
For example:
1. All predators eat meat;
2. Tiger - a predatory animal;
3. Therefore, the tiger also eats meat.
1. All metals are electrically conductive;
2. Copper - metal;
3. Therefore, copper has electrical conductivity.
Rational thinking is further from reality than sensual thinking. Does this mean that sensory knowledge gives us a richer, more vivid, figurative knowledge of reality than rational knowledge? This is only at first glance. In fact, the ability of the mind to generalize, to see the general in objects, phenomena of reality, to “grasp” the most important, essential, makes rational knowledge a means (method) of a deeper understanding of the world than sensory knowledge.
Rational knowledge makes it possible to comprehend and predict the future. This ability of scientific foresight is based on knowledge of the laws of nature and society. The ability of the mind to fantasy is at the same time a source of delusions, i.e. abstractions can be true or false. Therefore, the ability of the mind to create must be inextricably linked with practice, have support in it, as the basis of knowledge.
What is the relationship between the sensual and the rational in the process of cognition? Proponents of sensationalism (from Latin sensus - perception, feeling, sensation) - trends in the theory of knowledge, argued the primacy (from Latin inequality, dominance, prevailing value) of sensory experience over reason2. They believed that there is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses. They reduced rational, cognitive activity itself to various combinations of the material that is given in sensory experience. The most prominent representatives of the sensualists in the history of philosophy were: John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Paul Henri Holbach, Claude Andrian Helvetius, Denis Diderot, Julien Offret de La Mettrie.
There are materialistic and idealistic sensationalism. Materialistic sensationalism sees in the sensory activity of a person the connection of his consciousness with the external, objective world, and in the indications of the human senses - a reflection of this world. Idealistic sensationalism sees in sensory activity a kind of self-existing sphere of consciousness. For example, Berkeley completely rejected external experience and considered sensations as the property of only human consciousness.
Rationalists (from Latin ratio - mind) - argued the primacy of reason over sensory knowledge. Even Parmenides distinguished between "knowledge by truth", i.e. received through the mind and knowledge "in opinion", received as a result of sensory perception. Rationalists considered reason the basis of human knowledge and behavior, the only source and criterion of truth (Rene Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Herzen Alexander Ivanovich and others). The recognition of reason as the only source of reliable knowledge led rationalism to an idealistic conclusion about the existence of innate ideas (for example, R. Descartes; I. Kant).
The basic principle of dialectical materialism in the theory of knowledge is the dialectical relationship between the sensible and the rational in cognition. The dialectical interpenetration of feelings and reason in the process of cognition means that not only forms of sensory cognition are imbued with reason (sensing, perceiving things, we call them, designate them. And where the word is already rational), but the reverse process also takes place. Every time abstract thinking turns to practice, sensory knowledge penetrates rational.
Cognition is in many ways a very complex contradictory and mysterious process. Intuition plays an important role in this process. Intuition literally means "look closely" in Latin. This is the ability to comprehend the truth by its direct discretion without substantiation with the help of evidence (as a sudden insight).
The mechanism of intuition is quite general; present in almost all spheres of human activity. Intuitive components are found in many professions and various life situations. First of all, it is practically all artistic creation. Very often, intuition manifests itself in medicine, when a doctor can accurately diagnose “at a glance”, finding it difficult to explain his decision. Often, intuition turns out to be a savior for workers in "high-speed professions." In the life of every person, regardless of his profession, there are situations when, with a lack of information and time to make a responsible decision, intuitive mechanisms work.
In philosophy and science, the following types of intuition are distinguished:
1. Intelligent. So Plato argued that the contemplation of ideas (the prototypes of things in the sensible world) is a kind of direct intellectual knowledge that comes as a sudden insight. 2. Sensual. For example, L. Feuerbach argued that the secret of intuitive knowledge "is concentrated in sensibility." 3. Emotional. 4. Mystical (as a result of divine revelation).
Prerequisites for intuition:
1. Training for the problem; 2. Search - long-term preparation of the mind, i.e. long, intense, intellectual search. Quite common is the amateurish idea that in order to intuitively obtain a result, serious preliminary preparation and a long accumulation of knowledge are not required. Many of the great scientists were embarrassed and upset when someone considered them to be geniuses who achieved everything quickly and - intuitively, that is, as if without in-depth work. So, the famous domestic scientist-chemist D.I. Mendeleev wrote: “Well, what a genius I am. He worked, he worked, he worked all his life. I searched, and I found it." A. Einstein said: I have been thinking and thinking for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is wrong. For the hundredth time, I'm right." And finally, L. Pasteur “Chance helps only minds prepared for discoveries through diligent studies and hard work”1; 3. The presence of a hint, a kind of trigger for intuition For I. Newton, as you know, it was an apple that fell on him and caused the idea of universal gravitation. For bridge engineer S. Brown, such a clue was a web hanging between the branches, which prompted him to the idea of a suspension bridge. In one of the radio broadcasts of Russia (dated November 1, 2004), information was heard that Dante's son had a dream about a place where his father hid individual manuscripts of his Divine Comedy, which were subsequently actually discovered there. It is also known that D.I. Mendeleev's table of the periodic law of chemical elements appeared in a dream in its final form.
Intuition is based on such factors as experience, flair, insight. Some researchers note that intuition is not an autonomous way of cognition, but a type of cognition. Others argue that intuition is a peculiar type of thinking, when individual links of the thinking process are carried in the mind more or less unconsciously, and it is the result of the thought, the truth, that is most clearly realized. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that intuition is enough to discern the truth, but it is not enough to convince yourself and others of this truth. This requires evidence. Scientists, no matter how the most inexplicable way a new name is obtained, are looking, firstly, for logical evidence for what they have received, and, secondly, for their confirmation in the real objective world. Despite the fact that the views of scientists on the place of intuition, on the mechanisms of its action are often ambiguous and contradictory, intuition itself is truly omnipresent: it gives directions to research, forms visual, mental models of objects, interprets empirical data, constructs fundamental concepts and general principles of the theory, develops hypotheses, stimulates the choice of effective techniques and research methods.
According to the genesis and method of organizing knowledge, it is divided into such types as ordinary (everyday, everyday, pre-scientific), scientific and extra-scientific.
Ordinary (worldly) is formed on the basis of a person's daily activities and reflects the variety of life situations in which he finds himself. It boils down mainly to stating the facts, their description. Ordinary knowledge is important for subject-oriented activity and is the basis for the development of organized and systematized types of knowledge.
Scientific knowledge rises to the level of explanation of facts, their comprehension in the system of concepts of a given science, and is included in the theory. Scientific knowledge is the understanding of reality in its past, present and future. Science finds the necessary, regular behind the random, the general behind the individual, and on this basis it makes predictions. “Scientific knowledge is a set of precisely formulated, expressed in a specialized (artificial) scientific language and substantiated statements. It is a generalizing knowledge that satisfies the requirement of novelty, truth, empirical and logical validity, allowing the possibility of verification. The most important goal of scientific activity is the increment of new true knowledge about the world”1.
In the structure of scientific knowledge, empirical and theoretical levels are distinguished. The origins of such a division go back to the period of the emergence of science, but this is especially clearly revealed in modern conditions. Empirical and theoretical levels "represent a general regularity in the structure of scientific knowledge"2. The distinction between these levels is based on empirical or theoretical research. At the empirical level, the basic information about reality is obtained empirically. Empirical research involves the subject-practical activity of the subject, aimed at the object under study, and the main methods for obtaining primary, experimental information are observation, experiment, measurement. The content of empirical knowledge is the results of the empirical activity of the subject, which have undergone rational-logical (conceptual) processing and expressed in a special scientific language (the language of observation). Therefore, empirical knowledge does not coincide with the sensory reproduction of reality, neither in form nor in content.
Theoretical research is connected with the improvement and development of the conceptual apparatus of science and is aimed at a comprehensive knowledge of objective reality in its essential connections and patterns. The theoretical level has specificity, special methods and forms of reality reproduction. The most significant are abstraction and idealization, as well as the method of thought experiment. Both types of research are organically interconnected and presuppose each other in the integral structure of scientific knowledge.
Scientific knowledge differs by subject areas (natural, social, humanitarian, technical, etc. sciences), by the nature of the study, fundamental and applied sciences are distinguished.
The main forms of extra-scientific knowledge are religion, literature and art, where the knowledge of the world, the personality of its environment is carried out through the creation of artistic images. The development of science gives rise to a number of deviant (deviating) forms of extrascientific knowledge, which in modern conditions are becoming especially active and attracting more and more attention. These include various forms of esoteric1 knowledge called occult sciences (astrology, alchemy, palmistry, spiritualism, magic, etc.) and a number of parascientific currents (parapsychology, ufology, etc.). In the context of the aggravation of modern global problems, the intensification of the crisis in science itself, these forms of knowledge are often considered as an alternative to the scientific worldview.
As the main reasons for the wide spread of esoteric knowledge, researchers name, firstly, the features of the cognitive process itself as a whole, the impossibility of scientific knowledge to cover the whole of reality and give everything a rational justification, while people have always had hopes of finding a quick and miraculous solution to pressing problems. . Secondly, during acute crises in the spiritual life of society, an intellectual vacuum is always formed, which is filled with various forms of extra-scientific knowledge, primarily religious-mythological and esoteric2.
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§2. Sensory and rational cognition
Cognitive images by origin and essence are divided into sensual and rational, which, in turn, form sensual and rational cognition.
1. Sensory knowledge
The question of the relationship between sensory and rational cognition has long been considered by philosophers, and in modern times it has become the main one (the so-called problem of sensationalism and rationalism). The sensualists considered sensory cognition to be the source of knowledge, while the rationalists thought that only thinking could give truth.
Sensory cognition is created by sensory images obtained by the direct impact of objects and phenomena of reality on the sense organs (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste).
The main forms of sensory cognition:♦ feeling; ♦ perception; ♦ presentation.
Sensation is a direct reflection of any individual property of an object (color, sound, smell) with the help of one of the sense organs. Sensations depend both on the properties of the object and on the structure of the organ that perceives. Animals that do not have "cones" in their eyes do not distinguish colors. But these organs of perception are built in such a way as to give reliable information, otherwise the life of the owner of the organs will become impossible.
Perception - the highest form of sensory knowledge - a reflection of the whole, a system of properties with the help of several senses. It, like sensation, is a function of two arguments. On the one hand, the reflection of the whole depends on the properties of the object, and, on the other hand, on the structure of the organs of perception (because it consists of sensations), previous experience and the entire mental structure of the object. Each person perceives the environment through the structure of his own personality, in his own way. On this phenomenon, such methods of personality psychodiagnostics as the Rorschach method, etc. are built.
The Rorschach method consists in the fact that the patient who is being diagnosed examines various colored spots and tells what exactly he sees in them. Depending on what a person sees, its most important psychological characteristics are determined, in particular, the mobility of the central nervous system, extroversion or introversion, the degree of aggressiveness and other properties, as well as attitudes, motives of the personality and its integral structure.
In other projective tests, the subject must complete incomplete sentences, determine what will happen to the people shown in the picture, and so on. In all these cases, the experimental object transforms the information according to its individuality, and the doctor has the opportunity to reveal the structure of the patient's personality, since there is a reliably established dependence of perception on this structure.
A specific form of sensory cognition is representation - the reproduction in the psyche of the sensory image of an object based on past sensations and perceptions.
If sensations and perceptions arise during the direct interaction of the human senses with the existing objects and phenomena of reality, then representations arise when these objects do not exist. The physiological basis of representations are traces of excitations, stored in the cerebral cortex of the cerebral hemispheres from past irritations of the sense organs. Thanks to this, we can recreate the sensual image of an object when it is no longer in our direct experience. For example, we can vividly reproduce in our memory our loved ones and home environment, being far from home.
Representation is a transitional form from sensory cognition to logical cognition. It belongs to the forms of sensory cognition, since knowledge of an object in the form of representation has a sensory-concrete character. The essential properties of the object are not yet clearly distinguished here, but are delimited from the non-essential. And representation, in contrast to perception, rises above the immediate givenness of individual objects and connects them with understanding.
Representation contains a significant element of generalization, because it is impossible to imagine an object in the fullness of its features, according to which we perceived it before. Some of them are bound to be forgotten. Only those properties of an object are stored in memory that were of greatest importance to us at the time of its perception. Therefore, representation is, so to speak, a generalized reflection of the object. We can have an idea not about some single tree, but about a tree in general, as a plant that has roots, trunk, branches, leaves. However, this general representation cannot be identified with the concept, because the latter reflects not only general and partial properties, all these features are in an internal necessary connection with each other. And it doesn't show up in the presentation.
Perception refers only to the present, to what exists at this moment, and the phenomenon - and the present, and the past, and the future. Representations exist in two forms: in the form of images of memory and images of imagination.
Memory images are images of an object that are stored in the psyche and are updated at the mention. Imagination images do not have a prototype in reality, they are constructed in the psyche and are the basis of fantasy.
Naturally, ideas, like perception, depend on the structure of the personality. Thus, the representation of memory, the recollections of different people about the same events, differ in many ways.
Lawyers who interview witnesses are well aware of this. A striking example of this phenomenon is interesting movies. In particular, "Rashomon", in which several people tell the court about the same event (a duel between a robber and a samurai) in such a way that all the main points appear differently. Also "Married Life" - a film based on the novel by the French writer E. Bazin. In this film, the divorced couple recalls the story of their acquaintance, love, life together and divorce. It is convincingly shown that with the general scheme of events, the idea of the details, the nuances and the very essence of their relationship are significantly different.
Characteristic features of sensory cognition:
♦ immediacy;♦ singularity; ♦ number of storeys.
♦ concreteness; ♦ visibility;
Immediacy means that there are no mediated links between the object and the sensory image (except for the neurophysiological process, which cannot be eliminated).
Singularity lies in the fact that sensation, perception and representation are always related to a certain object. Specificity lies in the fact that single objects are reflected, taking into account their specificity in certain conditions. The visibility of sensual images expresses the relative ease of their mental perception, representation. The number of storeys is connected with the fact that sensation and perception reflect the external side of phenomena, while their essence is hidden and is not amenable to sensory knowledge.
2. Rational knowledge
Rational cognition is active, mediated and generalized cognition with the help of signs of natural or artificial language in the form of judgments, conclusions, concepts.
Judgment is a form of reflection in the human head of the presence or absence of a feature in an object. Judgments are carried out in the form of affirmation or negation. Therefore, a judgment can also be defined as follows: a judgment is a thought that affirms or denies something about something. The external, linguistic form of expressing a judgment is a grammatical sentence. For example, "The leaves on the tree are green", "The universe has no boundaries either in time or in space", etc.
In some judgments, reliable knowledge of the attributes of the subject has already been achieved, for example: "A person can successfully work in space flight conditions." Probable judgments only assume the presence or absence of some sign of the object: "It is possible that organic life exists on Mars." In judgments - questions, only a request is made about the existence of any sign of the subject: "is there a virus that spreads cancer?".
As we can see, the epistemological, cognitive value of the judgment lies precisely in the fact that with the help of this form of thinking to carry out a logical reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of reality. Studying objects and phenomena, we express many judgments about them, each of which is knowledge about some property or relation of the object.
Many judgments are expressed by us on the basis of sensory impressions of objects and phenomena that we encounter in direct experience. However, judgments are made not only on the basis of the direct evidence of our senses. All judgments of science, in the form of which definitions are given to objects and phenomena of reality, the laws of nature and society are formulated, various general provisions and principles are expressed, are inferential judgments, i.e. are the results of inferences.
Inference is the process of deriving a new proposition from existing ones. What is deduced in the process of inference is called a conclusion. Those judgments from which the conclusion is drawn are called reference, or grounds. Inference is a natural connection of judgments, that is, proposals. It exists only when the links are linked by some link, the so-called middle term. If we have, for example, two judgments "All infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms" and "Influenza is an infectious disease", then from these references we can conclude: "Influenza is caused by some microorganisms." In this inference, the reference is linked by a common term for them: "infectious diseases", which is the necessary logical basis for the conclusion. On the contrary, if we have such judgments as "The leaves on the tree are green" and "The whale is a mammal", then it is impossible to draw a conclusion from them, because there is no necessary logical connection, there is no middle term.
Applying various forms of inference, techniques and methods of scientific knowledge, a person discovers the general, necessary, essential properties and relationships of objects and phenomena of reality and creates scientific concepts about them. The concept is the end result, the result of scientific knowledge of the world. The essence of objects and phenomena is reflected in the form of concepts.
The concept is a reflection in the psyche of objects and phenomena of reality with their common and essential features. The concept as a form of thought is expressed in words and is characterized by such features. First, by the fact that it reflects the subject according to its general features. This means that the concept is a form of reflection not only of single objects or phenomena, but also of a certain number of homogeneous objects and phenomena and their regular relations. Secondly, the concept - is the knowledge of the essential properties and relationships of things. This circumstance is important to keep in mind, because different objects and phenomena can have quite a lot of common properties, but their knowledge does not mean knowledge of the essence. For example, both humans and chickens have two legs. However, the general sign "two-legged creature" will not express either the essence of a person, or the essence of a chicken as a bird. Thirdly, the concept reflects the unity of general and essential features, each of which is necessary, and together they are sufficient to define the subject.
The concept arises already at the empirical level, in everyday life, when, for example, children "define" things functionally: "What are fruits?" - "they are eaten"; "What is a dog?" - "She bites." That is, at this level, concepts reflect external and sometimes imaginary signs of things ("My mother is the best!").
The concept as a form of rational cognition is the result of judgments and the condition for their emergence; as a form of thinking, it is a concentrated expression of a long historical experience of cognition and hidden from the senses, deep, main properties and phenomena of reality. Science enhances the experience of a fleeting life thanks to our ability to form and apply concepts in cognition and activity.
Characteristic features of rational knowledge:
♦ mediation;♦ generalization;
♦ abstractness; ♦ lack of visibility;
♦ daytime.
Rational cognition, thought reflect reality not directly, directly, but indirectly, through an intermediate link, sensory cognition, which always mediates the connection between the object and rational knowledge. Therefore, the mediation of rational cognition is its first characteristic feature, as opposed to the immediacy of sensory cognition.
Generalization is the second feature of rational knowledge, which lies in the fact that the signs of the language that is used in it denote (except for proper names) certain sets of phenomena that have common features, and not one specific phenomenon.
The third feature of rational knowledge is abstractness. It is formed from the selection and isolation of certain properties and relations from their specific carriers, the designation of a selected sign (for example, a natural language word) and then operating with these signs, which replace phenomena.
Since rational cognition is abstract and exists in a symbolic form, sensory representation becomes impossible, that is, we are talking about the lack of visibility as the fourth feature of rational cognition. And finally, the fifth feature is the ability of a system of abstractions, indirectly connected with reality, to penetrate into the essence, to reveal the main thing.
3. The unity of the sensual and the rational in cognition
After all that has been said about sensory and logical knowledge, we are faced with the question of why rational knowledge reflects reality deeper and more fully than sensory knowledge. After all, abstract thinking is based on sensory knowledge. Where does this ability to penetrate into the essence of things come from?
This question throughout the history of philosophy has been the subject of discussions between various philosophical schools. Some philosophers argued that logical thinking does not give anything new in comparison with sensory knowledge. In thinking, as they said, there is nothing that would not have been in feelings before. These philosophers believed that thinking only unites, summarizes everything that is known from sensory perceptions. Moreover, it can lead to unresolvable paradoxes. For example, the paradox of a barber who can only shave those villagers who cannot shave themselves (what should he do with himself?).
Other philosophers, on the contrary, argued that sensory knowledge is dark, false knowledge, and that only reasonable, rational knowledge is true knowledge.
Thus, in the doctrine of cognition, there have long been two opposite directions: extreme sensationalism and extreme rationalism. Both of them are characterized by a one-sided approach: the first exaggerated sensory knowledge and humiliated the role of thinking, while the second exaggerated the role of thinking and belittled the importance of sensory knowledge.
Representatives of sensationalism believed that all our knowledge, after all, has a sensory origin. However, this direction limited the sphere of human knowledge to what is given directly in sensory experience, limited the role of thinking only to the function of processing sensory data and denied the possibility that thinking went beyond the sensory content of knowledge and penetrated into the essence.
Logical thinking not only summarizes the sensory impressions that are supplied by the senses, but also critically processes, analyzes them, compares them with the already reliably known results of science and practice, provides a link between new sensory impressions and all previous experience of scientific knowledge and transformation of the world. It is said that Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation, drawing attention to the fact that an apple, having fallen off a branch of an apple tree, falls down. However, there is a huge distance between the well-known fact of falling bodies and the law of universal gravitation.
Science discovers the laws of nature and society that are not directly perceived by sensations, for example, the physical laws of the atomic nucleus or the laws of genetics. Moreover, the provisions of science often contradict direct human perception. For example, the Earth revolves around the Sun and its axis, but it seems to us that the Earth is stationary, and the Sun moves around it. All this clearly shows how much new logical thinking provides for the knowledge of the world and how deeply mistaken the supporters of extreme sensationalism were.
With regard to extreme rationalism, it also does not stand up to criticism. Medieval scholastic rationalism, reflected in the religious idealistic philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, completely denied any empirical observation of natural phenomena and was the desire to "rationally substantiate the existence of God." Galileo gives an example when a scholastic scientist came to an anatomist and asked to show where the center is, to which all nerves converge. When the anatomist showed him that they converge to the human brain, the monk replied: "Thank you, this is so convincing that I would have believed you if Aristotle had not written that they converge to the heart." F. Bacon compared scholastics with spiders: "Scholastics, like spiders, weave their cunning verbal snares, not at all caring about whether their cunning sophistication corresponds to reality or not." It is necessary, however, to emphasize that such thinkers as Descartes and Leibniz, who developed the logical-mathematical method of cognition, put forward many valuable ideas, once belonged to the number of supporters of rationalism.
In fact, sensual and rational moments are two sides of a single cognitive process. Logical thinking, thanks to labor and language, historically arises from concrete-figurative, sensory cognition. Even now it cannot be realized without an oral or written word or some other conventional designation.
Thus, sensory perception conditions logical thinking in the following way:
♦ supplies primary information about external objects;
♦ words and symbols as an external material form of expression of thought directly exist and function on the basis of feelings.
In turn, knowledge with the help of the sense organs never exists in its pure form, because a person always realizes and expresses his sensory impressions through the mediation of internal and external speech in the form of judgments. So, the whole process of human reproduction of the external world in ideal images is a constant interconnection of the sensual and rational aspects of cognition.
All of the above is directly related to medicine, medical knowledge, in particular, before a diagnosis is made.
When establishing a diagnosis at the first stage of a medical examination, sensory cognition prevails, but it is always accompanied by thinking. After that, during the definition of a nosological unit in differential diagnostics, priority shifts to logical thinking, which operates not only with words, but also with sensory images and ideas.
4. Cognition and creativity
In the process of cognition, along with conscious sensibility and rationality, not conscious and not controlled mechanisms are involved, which are especially developed in talented and brilliant people, and are not explained by logical thinking. They define creativity, creative, non-algorithmic activity. The most important features of creativity is the harmony of the sensual and the rational (the harmony of the activity of the hemispheres of the human cerebral cortex), which turns out to be a developed imagination, fantasy and intuition.
In their right mind, the leakage of creative work, true ... Things to subordinate to myself, and not to obey them, I try.
Horace
All the joys of life are in creativity... To create means to kill death.
G. Rollan
There is hardly any higher pleasure than the pleasure of creating.
M. Gogol
And the silver thread of fantasy always winds around the chain of rules.
G. Schumann
The human mind has three keys that open everything: knowledge, thought, imagination - everything is in it.
V. Hugo
In the work of thought there is joy, strength, breathtaking, harmony.
V. Vernadsky
Happiness is an easy product of free labor, free creativity.
I. Bardin
He who has imagination but no knowledge has wings but no legs.
J. Joubert
One should always prefer the sandals of the facts observed above the wings ... imagine how attractive flying may seem.
J. Fabre
A unique property of the Universe is that it is comprehensible.
A. Einstein
Imagination is the main element in the structure of spiritual creativity. Its specific feature is a special relation of a person to the world, which is expressed in the relative independence, freedom of the subject from direct perception of reality. Imagination is usually understood as mental activity, consisting in the creation of ideas and mental situations that have never been directly perceived by a person as a whole. In terms of meaning, the concept of imagination is close to the concept of fantasy.
Fantasy is a necessary component of creative activity and consists of creating an image or mental model that does not yet have its specific analogue (prototype) in the objective world. Without the ability to create images of imagination, fantasy, creative thinking of a person in general would be impossible. “Everything high and beautiful in our life, science and art,” wrote M.I. Pirogov, “is created by the mind with the help of fantasy, and much of what is fantasy with the help of the mind. We can safely say that neither Copernicus nor Newton without the help of fantasy would not have acquired the significance in science that they have."
Already in the representations of memory (reproductive representation) there is always an element of fantasy, so that any act of reflection is associated with a more or less significant mental transformation of the object. At the same time, images of memory and images of imagination (productive representations) differ significantly from each other.
To understand the specifics of imagination, it is necessary to take into account that, firstly, the transformation of the content of knowledge in the imagination always takes place in a visual form (the creation of visual or fantastic images in art, visual models in science, etc.). Secondly, the leading role in the work of imagine is played by goal-setting thinking (certain images are created in the name of certain goals - aesthetic, scientific, practical activities, etc.). Thirdly, representations are images, phenomena that have not been observed before. However, they are connected with reality and reflect it. So, in the fantastic image of a centaur, the features inherent in a man and a horse are combined, in the image of a mermaid - the features of a woman and a fish, etc.
Imagination images are formed not only by combining elements of memory images, but also by rethinking these elements, filling them with new content, so that they do not copy existing objects, but are ideal prototypes of what is possible. As a result of this, the images of the imagination, firstly, turn out to be complex, combined, and, secondly, contain both sensory-visual and rational-logical components.
The transformation of empirical knowledge, as a result of which additional information is obtained, is the main element of creative imagination.
The French physicist Louis de Broglie argued that creative imagination, myslennєve operating with visual images underlie all the true achievements of science. That is why the human mind is able, in the end, to prevail over all machines that count and classify better than it, but can neither imagine nor foresee.
A dream is a special form of imagination, a mental activity aimed at creating images of a desired future. The creative nature of a dream is determined by its social orientation and breadth of ideas of the imagination. The specificity of a dream is that it cannot be directly embodied in certain products. However, its idea can subsequently form the basis of technical, scientific and social transformations. A fruitful dream stimulates the activity of the individual, creates a creative tone, and determines life prospects. And vice versa, illusory dreams distract a person from reality, turn out to be fruitless, and fetter social activity.
So, the main operations of the imagination process are the mental combination (combination in thoughts) with relatively simple representations of sensory experience, the construction of complex new images from them or on their basis, and as a result, fantasizing as an assumption of the possibility of the existence of such things, the integral real existence of which has never been observed.
But what is the mechanism for putting forward new ideas and new ideas in the process of imagination? It is often thought that this is intuition.
What is intuition? The concept of intuition comes from the Latin word, which means "contemplation", "discretion", "vision", "sharp looking". Plato believed that intuition is an inner vision with which a person is able to contemplate the eternal world of ideas that are in her own soul. The complexity of elucidating the essence and mechanism of intuition is associated with its subconscious nature and the complexity of studying all the phenomena of the psyche. Intuition can be determined by a subconscious cognitive process, which leads to the creation of fundamentally new images and concepts, the content of which cannot be derived by logically operating with existing concepts.
In modern psychology of creativity, there are several stages in the process of intuition:
♦ accumulation of images and abstractions in memory;
♦ unconscious combination and processing of accumulated images and abstractions in order to solve the tasks;
♦ clearer understanding of the task and its formulation;
♦ sudden finding of a solution (insight - insight - "eureka!" - often during rest, sleep).
Creative intuition comes into its own when the available information does not make it possible to solve the problem using ordinary logical reasoning. Intuitive knowledge appears to appear abruptly, without a consistent logical justification, while the combination of sensory images is of great importance (in Einstein's words, "combinatorial play" with figurative elements of thinking). The famous chemist Kekule for a long time could not find the structural formula of benzene and finally found it as a result of an association, which he recalls as follows: "I saw a cage with monkeys that caught each one, then mating, then roses" one at a time, and once grabbed so that they formed ring ... Thus, five monkeys, jumping up, formed a circle, and the thought immediately flashed through my head: here is the image of benzene.
From the above example, we can see that the success of the emergence of an intuitive solution depends on how much the researcher managed to get rid of the template, to be convinced of the unsuitability of previously known paths, and to maintain not only concentration, but also deep admiration for the task.
Attempts to solve the problem before "insight" are unsuccessful, but they are not meaningless. At this time, a special state of the psyche is formed - the search dominant - the state of deep concentration on solving the problem. This leads to a solution to the problem: thinking is a little detached (“you won’t see a face face to face”) and the brain that has rested is visited by an idea, as they say, “on a bright head”.
Intuition arises only on prepared soil as a result of labor, experience and talent, as a result of the activity of sensory and rational cognition.
Medical intuition is associated with a quick, subconscious positive confidence in the diagnosis. Such intuition is the result of mandatory long-term observations and the process of comparison and analysis of features brought to automatism.
The obligatory goal of sensual and rational cognition, scientific creativity is the knowledge of truth.
A person needs knowledge about himself and the world around him. It is knowledge that allows us to adapt to the world, to explain and foresee the approach of certain events. Today we have the opportunity to study the different experiences of different peoples. At the same time, there is a distinction between sensory and rational cognition. Let's try to understand this in more detail.
rational cognitionSensual and rational levels of cognition have their own forms. First, let's look at the forms of rational cognition:
- Thinking transforms sensory experience and provides an opportunity to obtain certain knowledge about such relationships that are inaccessible to sensory knowledge alone.
- Comparison allows you to highlight common essential features, resulting in the formation of the correct concept.
- concept is a form that reflects objects or phenomena in their essential features. It is known that the concept is built on the basis of representation, which is a sensual form. The attributes of objects obtained from the representation are subjected to a thorough analysis and sorted out with the allocation to the essential ones. In order to understand something, you need to pass it through your values, ideals, experience, norms, etc.
- Judgment is a form of thought in which something can be affirmed or denied through the connection of certain concepts. With the help of judgment, we can reveal one of the sides of the subject, which is expressed in the absence or presence of a separate feature. In order to judge something, it is necessary to express one's own opinion about the said thought.
- Inference called a form of thinking by which one can make a new judgment on the basis of others.
This view also has its own forms:
- Feel are direct effects on the senses. They reflect situations and objects when exposed to vision, smell, touch, hearing, taste and other senses.
- Perception affects the sense organs in a holistic way of the object. It is associated with active detection, as well as discrimination and analysis of properties, objects with the help of our hands, eyes, ears, etc. It is perception that connects and correlates objects in space and time. Thus, the orientation of the cognizing subject in the environment is provided.
- Performance is a sensual image of objects and situations that are stored in the mind without their direct impact. Representation allows you to form images of objects based on memories or productive imagination.
It is important to note that the features of rational and sensory cognition should be in harmony with each other. You can not be guided by only one side.
For a better understanding, let's look at examples of rational and sensory cognition. Rational knowledge occurs when:
- you are reading a scientific article;
- conduct an experiment;
- put forward a theory;
- prove a theorem;
- conduct a sociological survey, etc.
Sensory cognition occurs through the senses when you:
The real process of cognition should take place with the interconnection of sensual and rational forms. They can be singled out and considered separately, but they are parties to a single process, so they must work together. In some cases, the rational component (science) may predominate, in others the sensual component (art). At the same time, the relationship between sensory and rational cognition is very important. If they function in harmony with each other, she will be able to make the right decisions and remain happy at the same time.
Sensual reflection. Man's knowledge of the world begins with sensual contact with it, with "living contemplation". By "living contemplation" is meant a sensual reflection of reality in such forms as sensation, perception, representation. All these forms, like cognition as a whole, are generalized and conditioned by practice, and therefore cannot be reduced, as was done by metaphysical contemplative materialism, to the passive sensibility of an isolated individual.
Feeling - it is a reflection of the individual properties of objects and phenomena due to their direct influence on the human senses. Sensation - these are the channels that connect the subject with the outside world. But, being the result of the direct influence of only individual properties and aspects of objects, sensation, although it is a source of knowledge, at the same time does not give a holistic description of reality, but only a one-sided picture of it. A more complex form of reflection is perception.
Perception is a sensual reflection of objects and phenomena of reality in the totality of their inherent properties with their direct action on the human senses. Perception is a holistic, multidimensional, sensual image of reality that arises on the basis of sensations, but is not their mechanical sum. This is a qualitatively new form of sensitive reflection of reality, which performs two interrelated functions: cognitive and regulatory. The cognitive function reveals the properties and structure of objects, while the regulatory function directs the subject's practical activity in accordance with these properties of objects. Perception is active.
Representation is a sensory image, a form of sensory reflection that recreates the properties of reality according to the traces of objects reflected in the memory that were previously perceived by the subject.
Representation is a sensual image of an object that no longer affects the human senses; it is a generalized image of reality. Representation is divided into images of memory and images of imagination. With the help of images of the imagination, a picture of the future is created.
Sensual reflection, as already noted, is the source of any knowledge of reality. Nevertheless, the allocation of sensory cognition as the initial stage of cognition makes sense only when the question of the source of our knowledge of reality is being decided. In general, sensory reflection takes on the status of knowledge only when it functions in organic unity with the activity of thinking, subordinate to its categorical apparatus, guided by it and confirmed by practice, contains human meaning and significance in each of its forms.
Rational knowledge. Sensory reflection and its basic forms, although they are a necessary side of knowledge, are limited in their ability to give true knowledge. Therefore, knowledge about reality, which it is, regardless of the subject, is achieved by the further development of forms of knowledge that lead beyond the boundaries of direct sensibility. Such a higher sphere in comparison with sensory reflection, a qualitatively new level of reflection of reality, is rational cognition, the activity of thinking.
Thinking is a process of active, purposeful, generalized, essential and systemic reproduction of reality and solving the problems of its creative transformation in such logical forms as a concept, judgment, conclusion, category.
The concept is a form of rational knowledge, which reflects the essence of the object and gives its comprehensive explanation. The concept as knowledge of the essence, knowledge about the general and regular is formed, in the end, on the basis of practice, since it is in the process of practice that the subject can determine the essential and non-essential aspects of reality. The change in concepts is the result of a change in our knowledge of reality or reality itself, which is reflected in concepts. If new knowledge does not fit into the framework of old concepts, then there is a change in concepts, clarification of their content or creation of new ones.
Judgment is a logical form of thinking in which something is affirmed or denied regarding the object of knowledge. In judgments, the connection between concepts is expressed, their content is revealed, and a definition is given. In fact, the connection between concepts is expressed in judgments, and the concepts themselves are the result of the activity of thinking in the form of judgments, their system.
Inference is a logical process in the course of which a new judgment is derived from several judgments on the basis of regular, essential and necessary connections, which has new knowledge about reality as its content.
According to the nature of obtaining new knowledge, inferences are divided into the following main types:
Inductive - the movement of thought from judgments of a less general nature to more general ones;
deductive - the movement of thought from judgments of a more general nature to less general ones;
· inferences by analogy - in the course of which, on the basis of the similarity or difference of some precisely identified properties of a number of objects, they come to the conclusion about the similarity or difference of other properties of these objects.
Rational and sensual are dialectically interconnected aspects of a single cognitive process, which only in unity can give an adequate picture of reality.
Creative imagination. Imagination is a specific fusion of the sensual and the rational in cognition, where sensibility serves as the basis, material for creating images of the imagination, and thinking plays a programming role, makes it possible to logically "complete" a holistic and general image of reality.
Cognition, giving an adequate reflection of reality, must also be a creative process. The ways of realization of cognitive creativity are multifaceted. Cognitive creativity is realized both in the process of knowledge formation and in the process of its theoretical interpretation, in identifying and comprehending its essence, scope and significance, as well as in practical use.
Intuition- this is the ability to directly comprehend the truth, such a form of cognition, when, due to signs that are unconscious at a given moment in time and, not being aware of the path of the movement of one's own thought, the subject receives new objectively true knowledge about reality. Intuition is the climax of the creative process, when all the elements of the cognitive problem, which were previously in a separate state, are combined into a single system. The main characteristics of intuition in the study: immediacy, surprise, unconsciousness of the ways of obtaining new knowledge. However, the study of the works of outstanding scientists proves that intuition is not a sudden insight into the essence of phenomena through instantaneous "enlightenment", as representatives of irrationalism believe, not a complete surprise, but a natural phenomenon, depending on the completeness of the logical analysis of the problem. The suddenness of an intuitive conclusion is associated with such a characteristic of intuition as the instantaneous consideration of a great variety of data and factors of the situation. This suddenness is the result of a synthetic activity of thinking, the internal processes of which are not realized by the subject, since there is no visible connection between the result and the previous intellectual activity. Through intuition, a transition is made from gradual quantitative changes in the clarification and comprehension of a cognitive problem to its effective solution. The suddenness and unexpectedness of knowledge obtained by intuition is so only in relation to the expected results. At the same time, it is wholly “expected”, “such that it meets the aspirations” regarding the socio-historical laws of the development of knowledge and practice.
Intuitive discovery is not direct knowledge either, it only has this form, since it is achieved mainly in the sphere of the subconscious mental activity of the subject. In fact, intuition is always mediated by all the complex course of previous cognitive processes that were aimed at solving a given problem. Intuitive discoveries become possible only when the scientist has processed certain factual and theoretical material.
Explanation and consideration. Intuition must be considered in unity with logical methods and forms of cognition. In the most complex logical proofs, intuition is always woven in, which acts as an element that unites the entire chain of evidence into integrity, being a necessary element of reflection and consideration.
Consideration is the process and result of the spiritual, practical and cognitive development of reality, when external objects are involved in the comprehension of human activity, they act as its subject content. Consideration is a form of assimilation of reality, which reveals and recreates the content of the object. All this cannot be done solely by means of rational cognition. Here a person uses all forms of knowledge, including intuition.
Explanation is the disclosure of the essence of objects and phenomena by clarifying the causes of their occurrence and existence, the existence of the laws of their functioning and development. The most developed form of explanation is a scientific explanation, which is based on understanding the theoretical laws of the emergence, functioning and development of objects. Explanation is an important stimulus for the development of knowledge, its categorical and conceptual apparatus, as well as the basis for the development of criteria and assessments of the adequacy of knowledge. Any explanation is built on the basis of one or another consideration of reality, which characterizes the integrity of knowledge, its meaningfulness and a certain assessment. Consideration is, first of all, the comprehension of knowledge, the manifestation and reconstruction of its meaning, as well as the assessment through the socially significant values of human life and culture. The theoretical development of reality involves not only obtaining knowledge about the world, but also understanding this world.
Knowledge, explanation and consideration are the necessary moments of a person's interaction with the outside world, with the help of which he accumulates certain information about objects that are included in social practice. But such an accumulation also provides for the periodic ordering and rethinking of knowledge, which leads to a deeper understanding of the world.
Thinking, in addition to logical laws that express absolutely precise and strictly defined connections between statements and their elements, is also based on certain principles of probable regulation, which, although it does not guarantee an error-free solution of problems, nevertheless ensures the movement of scientific research in the proper direction. In the process of scientific research, the subject is forced to interrupt the gradual logical reasoning with intuitive leaps. Logic and intuition are two interdependent mechanisms of scientific creativity that complement each other and do not exist in isolation from each other.
All human mental activity is included in the process of cognition. However, the main role is played by sensory and rational cognition. Sensory or sensitive cognition is cognition with the help of the sense organs, it gives direct knowledge about objects and their properties and proceeds in three main forms: sensation, perception, representation.
Sensation is a sensual image of an individual property of an object - its color, shape, taste, etc. A holistic image of an object, resulting from its direct impact on the senses, is called perception. Perceptions are formed on the basis of sensations, representing their combination. An apple, for example, is perceived as a combination of feeling its shape, color, taste. A more complex form of sensory cognition is a representation - an image of a separate object preserved in the mind, perceived by a person earlier. Representation - the result of past impacts of the object on the senses, reproduction and saved the image of the object in its absence at the moment. An important role in the formation of ideas is played by memory and imagination, thanks to which we can imagine the place where we were before, the event described in the story of the interlocutor or in the book. Imagination and memory form an idea not only about a real object, such as an apple, but also fantastic images that are a combination of several real objects (a centaur, a satyr, a witch in a mortar and with a broomstick, etc.).
Thus, sensory knowledge provides knowledge about individual properties and objects of reality. Can we assume that this knowledge is reliable? Are our senses deceiving us, as the ancient skeptics believed?
It is known that many animals have sense organs that are superior in their capabilities to human sense organs. The sight of an eagle is sharper than that of a man, the sense of smell of a dog is thinner than that of a human. But the human sense organs were formed not only as a result of biological evolution, as in animals, but also in the process of practical interaction of man with the outside world. They became humanized. The nature of the sense organs is biosocial. “An eagle sees much farther than a man,” notes Engels, “but the human eye notices much more in things than the eye of an eagle. A dog has a much finer sense of smell than a man, but he does not distinguish even a fraction of those smells that for a man are the defining features of various things. And the sense of touch, which the monkey possesses in its most primitive, crude, rudimentary form, was developed only along with the development of the human hand itself, thanks to labor.
It must also be borne in mind that a person improves his cognitive abilities with the help of tools of cognition manufactured and used - various instruments and devices that enhance his senses (microscope, telescope, radar, etc.). Therefore, the physiological limitation of the human senses is not any serious obstacle in the knowledge of the external world.
As for the reliability of sensory images, their correspondence to things and their properties, we note the following. The same objects evoke different feelings in different people, which skeptics have noticed. The subjectivity of sensations is due to the physiological differences in the sense organs of individuals, their emotional state and other factors. But it would be erroneous to absolutize the subjective side of knowledge, considering that in sensations and perceptions there is an objective content that does not depend on a person and reflects reality. If this were so, then a person would not be able to navigate in the world around him at all. He would not be able to distinguish objects by their size, color, taste, and not knowing the real properties of wood, stone, iron, he would not be able to make and use tools, to get the means of subsistence. Therefore, sensory cognition, including the moment of the subjective, has an objective content that does not depend on a person, thanks to which the sense organs give basically correct knowledge about reality. Sensations, perceptions, ideas are subjective images of the objective world.
It is also necessary to emphasize that cognitive activity is not limited to sensory perception. It includes rational cognition, which, interacting with sensory perception, complements and corrects the cognitive process and its results.
Sensory cognition provides knowledge about individual objects and their properties. It is impossible to generalize this knowledge, to penetrate into the essence of things, to know the cause of phenomena, the laws of being with the help of only the sense organs. This is achieved through rational knowledge.
Rational knowledge, or abstract thinking, is mediated by knowledge obtained with the help of the senses, and is expressed in basic logical forms: concepts, judgments and conclusions, reflecting the general, essential in objects.
Based on the generalization of knowledge about individual objects and their properties, abstract thinking forms the concept of the properties inherent in a certain set of them (round, cold, sour), about a set of objects (apple, house, person), it is able to form high-order abstractions containing knowledge about the most general properties and relations of reality. Such, for example, are the philosophical categories: “being”, “objective reality”, “movement”, “society”, etc. processes, establish their causes, learn the laws of motion and development of nature and society, create a complete picture of the world.
Thinking is inextricably linked with language. Concepts, judgments, conclusions are expressed in certain linguistic forms: words and phrases, sentences and their connections. Varieties of language - inner speech, the language of the deaf and dumb, various means of transmitting information using artificial languages do not refute, but, on the contrary, confirm the unity of language and thinking. Language is a sign system that performs the function of forming, storing and transmitting information in the process of cognition of reality, a means of communication between people.
The unity of language and thinking does not mean their identity. Thinking has an ideal nature, language is a material phenomenon, it is a system of sounds or signs; without reflecting objects, it designates them, acts as their symbol.
Sensual and rational cognition make up the sides of a single process of cognition. Reflecting the object from the external, superficial side, sensory cognition contains elements of generalization, which is characteristic not only of perceptions and sensations. They constitute a prerequisite for the transition to rational cognition. Rational cognition not only includes the moment of sensuality, which it would be devoid of objective content and with the objective world, but, in addition, it orients and conditions sensual cognition. And although sensory cognition is primary in relation to thinking, however, in the formed cognition, the sensual acts inextricably linked with the rational, constituting a single cognitive process.
From understanding the process of cognition as a dialectical unity of the sensual and the rational, it follows that sensationalism and rationalism are one-sided epistemological currents that absolutize one of the sides of this unity. Sensualists absolutize the role of sensory knowledge, believing that all knowledge comes from experience, from sensory perception. Rationalists absolutize rational cognition, believing that only the mind is able to cognize the existing. If empiricists-materialists (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Helvetius, Holbach, etc.) proceeded from the recognition of the material world, the images of which are sensations, then empiricists-idealists (Berkeley, Mach, positivists) limited experience to a combination of sensations, recognizing sensations as the only reality. In the teachings of rationalists who adhere to idealistic positions (for example, in the philosophy of Hegel), mind is understood not as the mind of a person, but as absolute mind, the world spirit. At the same time, while defending the thesis about the activity of thinking, its ability for unlimited cognition, rationalism in any of its forms opposes various currents of irrationalism, which belittle rational inquiry, intellect, and highlight superintelligent ways of mastering reality.
Considering cognition as a process, it is important to note that this process also includes attention and memory, imagination and intuition. In addition, cognitive activity interacts with the emotional and motivational-volitional spheres of consciousness, as well as with all prerequisite knowledge.
