Lecture 4. Epistemology - the doctrine of cognition

cognition and epistemology.
2. The structure of cognition.

(from Latin “gnosis” - knowledge, “logos” - teaching) is a

branch of philosophy in which the problems of the cognizability of the world, the boundaries of human cognition, ways of obtaining knowledge and criteria for its reliability are studied.
In the course of cognition, various facets of being, the external and the essence of things, the phenomena of the surrounding world are explored and revealed, and also the subject of cognition - a human being - are explored, i.e. (which is to say), а man cognizes himself.

aimed at producing new knowledge based on the achievements of

past generations.
In the course of history, two philosophical approaches to the problem of reliable knowledge of existence have developed: gnosticism and agnosticism.

in a credible way, and a person has potentially unlimited

possibilities of cognition.
B) proponents of agnosticism consider it impossible to fully and reliably cognize the essence of being, the laws of nature and society.
Modern scientific cognition adheres to the position of Gnosticism.

are distinguished:
A) Subject, object of cognition and the subject matter.
B)

Ways and means of cognition
C) Types (forms) and levels of cognition
D) The result of cognition or knowledge (truth).

of cognition is a human being from whom cognitive interest

comes and which carries out cognitive activity.
The subject of cognition possesses 1) reason and 2) an arsenal of cognitive means accumulated by mankind. The cognizant subject is also humanity as a whole or a collective.

world, to which the cognitive interest of the subject is

directed. Fourth areas of cognition attract the attention of man: the world of nature, the world of society, the inner world of man and idea of God.
The subject matter is part of the object to which the "point" of cognition is directly directed.

does man know the world? The methods of cognition are

determined by the characteristics of the cognizing subject, the available knowledge and historically formed cognitive traditions. In the course of human development, the following ways of comprehending being (reality) have developed:

collective and individual experience of the practical and practical mastery

of the world.
2. Mythological cognition is the cognition and explanation of natural phenomena and human existence through myth-making (through symbols, images and beliefs).

a religious worldview and religious doctrines. In religious cognition, special

methods of cognition of the world and man have developed: revelation and meditation.

creativity and the language of art. A feature of artistic

cognition is the unity of cognition and self- cognition, the object and subject of cognition merge. Means of artistic cognition are: in literature - the word, in painting - color, in music - sound, in sculpture - three-dimensional forms.

as a whole on the basis of operating with abstract

concepts of the ultimate (higher) order. Philosophy also defines the system of principles, views, values and ideals of a person, his attitude to the world and to himself. Means of philosophical cognition: reflexion, dialectics, metaphysics.

of objective reliable knowledge of the surrounding reality. The most

important means of scientific knowledge is the language of science (thesaurus).

cognition, sensual and rational cognition are distinguished.
I. Sensual

cognition or sensualism (from Latin sense - feeling, sensation, perception) is the direct acquisition of information through the sense organs and the activity of the nervous system, the preservation and processing of knowledge in reality in the form of visual images. The main levels of sensory cognition are sensations, perception, representation.

out a direct connection with the world, the transformation of

the physiological process into the psychic process, into the fact of consciousness and the origin of the ideal image of the reflected object. Sensations (touch, smell, sight, hearing, taste) reflect only the individual sides of the object and do not give a complete view of it.

of constructing holistic images of objects and their interrelations, acting

at the given moment on the sense organs.
(3) Representation is the reproduction by means of memory and imagination of the perceptions already existing in the past personal and social experience. Representation serves as a link between sensory and rational cognition.

or abstract-logical thinking is the comprehension of reality by generalized

symbolic means. The characteristics of human cognitive activity are mainly related to the ability to rational cognition. Rationality i.e. the ability of thinking to work with ideal objects was first described by Plato. European civilization was originally called the rational civilization.

an object that reproduces in an abstract form a certain

object, a phenomenon, a property, a relationship.
(2) Reasoning is the thought in which one affirms or denies something about objects or phenomena.
(3) Conclusion is the form of thinking that allows us to derive new reasoning from several interrelated reasoning.

is the correspondence of the human knowledge of reality, the

coincidence of human thought and the object. The classical definition of truth was given by Aristotle. He defined truth as the correspondence of thought and subject, knowledge and reality. Modern philosophy calls the classical concept a correspondent theory of truth.

truth. Under the notion of objective truth is understood knowledge,

the content of which does not depend on either man or humanity. Objective truth consists of absolute and relative truth.

and comprehensive knowledge of the essence of objects and phenomena

of the material world. Absolute truth can never be refuted, because it is proved by science and confirmed by practice, and it falls out of the process of cognition, because it contains complete knowledge. For example, the sphericity of the Earth.

relative knowledge of the essence of objects and phenomena of

the material world. Relative truth is incomplete, inconclusive, included in the process of cognition, because it is not complete and requires scientific research, proof and confirmation of practice.

(knowledge) with the object, and not with the very same

knowledge. Such a comparison is possible only in the course of objective activity, i.e. practice. Therefore, practice is considered the main criterion of the truth of knowledge. Practice is an active sensory-objective activity of people, aimed at changing the surrounding reality.
Main types of practice: material production, management activity, scientific experiment.

(inadequate, unreliable, distorted) that does not coincide with it. The

aberrations, of course, make it difficult to find the truth, but they are inevitable, they are the necessary moment of the movement of knowledge to it.
Aberrations should be distinguished from falsehood. Falsehood is a deliberate distortion of truth in someone's selfish interests. The transfer of knowingly false knowledge is called misinformation.