Philosophical and methodological problems of science and technique By Nataliya V. Skakovskaya

Opportunities and borders of cognition

Opportunities and borders of cognition 1. Cognition as a Subject of Philosophical Analysis 2. Cognition and practice. 3. Classification of Forms of Knowledge. 4. Truth and delusions.

Cognition as a Subject of Philosophical Analysis Cognition and Practice Classification of Forms of Knowledge Truth and Delusion. The Criteria of the True Knowledge Knowledge and Belief

Cognition as a Subject of Philosophical Analysis

Cognition is a process, conditioned mainly by the public-historical practice, of attaining and developing knowledge, its constant intensification, broadening and modernization.

New knowledge about the world appears as a result of the interrelationships between object and subject.

agnosticism It is not a concept which denies the fact that cognition exists. Agnosticism doesn’t deny the process of cognition. We are speaking not about cognition itself but about its outcomes and about the correlation of the results of cognition with real life.

Agnosticim Elements of agnosticism can be found in different philosophical systems and that is why it can’t be identified only with idealism.

Agnosticism identified the real difficulties of the process of cognition and many of them are still not solved. For example, inexhaustibility and the borders of cognition, the impossibility to fully understand constantly changing and developing beings and the subjective form of knowledge as a reflection of the consciousness of a subject.

Cognition and its study is not something unchangeable; it is a dialectical process, which develops by definite rules. As a result, the cognitive development of knowledge plays a role throughout all the history of cognition and all human activity, including the subjective-sensual.

The process of cognition is determined by social and cultural facts and is implemented by man, who is included in the process of cognitive activity.

Each definite epoch brings newer knowledge into its own context. Knowledge is always identified by the needs of society and the requirements of material production and practice and that is why it takes specific forms in different stages of social development.

Cognition and Practice. Forms of Practice Cognition and Practice. Forms of Practice. Function of Practice in the Process of Cognition.

Practice is a specific form of human activity in a definite socio-cultural context and, as a result of this activity, man creates a new reality – the world of material and spiritual culture and new conditions of his existence and activity which are not provided by nature.

The main forms of practice

Material production, the reorganization of nature and natural human being.

Social activity is the reorganization of the public being, the changing of social relations and the reorganization of social structures.

Scientific experimentation is active activity, within this activity, man artificially creates conditions to investigate the features and characteristics of an objective world.

The main functions of practice in the process of cognition

Practice is a source of cognition because cognition is determined by the needs of people and society.

Practice is a foundation of cognition, its motive power.

Practice is a goal of cognition because it is able to regulate human activity.

Practice is the determining criteria of the truth of knowledge. Only practice determines whether the knowledge is true or false.

Classification of Forms of Knowledge

Ordinary-practical cognition. The foundation of this form of cognition is the experience of human practice and ordinary life. The sphere of ordinary cognition is diversified. It includes common sense, empirical experience and public psychology.

Playing cognition. Play and games are a way of discovering the truth by trying different variants of complicated cognitive situations.

Mythological cognition played an important role in the initial stages of human development. It is a reflection of perceived reality, unconsciousness and an artificial understanding of nature and society.

The artistic-figurative form of cognition was conceived in mythology and was further developed in art. Vasiliy Kandinsky

Religious meditation is identified by the emotional form of the human attitude toward the natural and social forces dominating man

Philosophical cognition. It is a common form of culture self-knowledge. Through reflection and interpretation as a methods, philosophy give wise knowledge about man and its life. Plato

Scientific knowledge. Since it is rational, it has emotions and belief as its components.

Knowledge is an active understanding of subjects and events, which can be contemplated. Knowledge is power! Meditationes Sacrae (1597) Francis Bacon

Truth and Delusion. The Criteria of the True Knowledge

Geocentrism Categories of truth and delusion are the key categories in the theory of cognition, which express two sides of the cognitive process.

Delusion is a knowledge which doesn’t correspond to or agree with its subject. Delusions have variable forms. It is important to distinguish scientific and non-scientific, empirical and theoretical, religious and philosophical delusions etc.

It is necessary to distinguish delusion from lie because a lie is a deliberate misinterpretation of the truth for mercenary ends, connected with misinformation and the transference of deliberately false knowledge.

Truth is a knowledge which corresponds to and agrees with its subject, in other words, an adequate, true and correct reflection of reality.

Features of truth: The objectiveness of truth is the final identification of reality, real practice, the independent knowledge of truth as a subject of contemplation. Truth is not a feature of material objects but a characteristic of the knowledge about them. Truth is subjective in its form and way of realization.

Truth is a process but not a single act of cognition about the object. Absolute truth (absolute in an objective sense) is a full exhaustive knowledge about reality as a whole – a cognitive ideal, which never will be reached, but cognition is always approaching it. It is also an element of knowledge, which can’t be refuted in the future. Dogmatism exaggerates the importance of the absoluteness of truth and its stability.

Relative truth expresses the fact that true knowledge is changing, expanding intensifying and developing. The relativity of truth lies in its incompleteness and approximateness. The creative development of relative truth based on practice leads us toward absolute truth. Relativism exaggerates the relativity of truth, with its changes and developments.

Truth is always concrete Truth is always concrete. Any true knowledge is determined by its content and application to definite conditions of time, epoch and other circumstances. Ignoring definite situations and circumstances may turn true knowledge into delusion.